Rectification Redux:Jürgen Habermas Meets Confucius

New Mexico-Texas Philosophical Society

2014 Spring ConferenceUniversity of Texas at El Paso

Robert Ferrell & Joe OldEl Paso Community College

Our impulse...

Media lies and distortion lead to anything but democracyJohn Kyl's statement on Planned Parenthood on the floor of the US Senate is iconic for and emblematic of statements ranging from

Weapons of Mass Destruction To Voter Suppression To Deregulation and trickle-down economics

“The statement was not intended as a factual statement.”

US Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) said

On the floor of the US Senate on April 8, 2011That abortion is “over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”Called on this, his office issued this statement:“His remark was not intended to be a factual statement.”The facts are that about only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's resources are devoted to abortion

The problem: Part 1

Kyl's statement represents instrumental reason (even when it's not based on reality) to achieve the strategic goal of eliminating Planned ParenthoodThis approach does not represent the beliefs of the majority of the community (the US population)Such reasoning is widely used in American politics today, e.g.,

Obstructionism directed at entire Obama agenda from inauguration day Filibuster in the Senate and continued attempts to repeal Obamacare

The

This is not a new issueConfuciusSolonThomas MoreJames Madison

And now...Jürgen Habermas

The problem: Part 1

Kyl's statement represents instrumental reason (even when it's not based on reality) to achieve the strategic goal of eliminating Planned ParenthoodThis approach does not represent the beliefs of the majority of the community (the US population)Such reasoning is widely used in American politics today, e.g.,

Obstructionism directed at entire Obama agenda from inauguration day Filibuster in the Senate and continued attempts to repeal Obamacare

Confucius: Rectification of Names

Provincial Museum of Shandong, China

Jürgen Habermas

Lifeworld vs System

Copy JO slide

Habermas on “instrumental reason”

He is not opposed to instrumental reason where it is and has been most effective, e.g., in science and goal oriented projectsHowever, he is committed to a clear separation of systems analysis (SYSTEM) and the more significant aspects of life as it's lived (LIFEWORLD)Instrumental reason has short-term interests at heart, subject/object/first-person grammatical structure, and strategic goal orientation

The ultimate problem: colonization

Instrumental reason threatens the Lifeworld with domination, oppression, alienation, and totalizing objectification, displacing the goals of the entire community with limited such as profit, ending in something much like Social Darwinism, which is quite effective for the few.

The Problem: Part 2

Instrumental Reason sees nothing wrong with distortion (even lies) if it is strategically effective This more widespread and important than Kyl's “Noble Lie”The biggest problem (we believe) is corporate domination of the political system, partly via coopting politicians through campaign contributions (a la Citizens United)And manipulating the public through enormous spending on the media (much of it secretly)Congress, for example, often puts vested interests above community interests

Habermas's project

Second generation Frankfurt School theoristMax Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of the Enlightenment and extreme pessimismPostmodernism's limitation of rationalityPositivism's ignorance of all but instrumental reason Enlightenment as an “unfinished project”Habermas would maintain communicative action against the onslaught of instrumental reason

“Ideal Speech Situation”

Habermas's use of JL Austin's Speech Act Theory was widely misunderstoodAs idealist metaphysicsBut it was describing a goal for a process of discourseUniversally seen as major opponent of Derrida's thinking, but ended as “friends” exemplifying democratic discourse on the issue of world politicsHabermas's Discourse Principle is radically democratic

“Ideal” discourse

Habermas change the term to “idealization”Instead of a revolutionary and static “ideal” situation, Habermas was referring to a on-going, “dialogic” learning process always open to revision

Communicative Action Theory

For Habermas rationality is inherent in the very attempt at communication Involves the very expectation of understanding Without which there would be no point in even trying

CA Theory is directed at norm development through consensus, which instrumental reason is not prepared to deal withHe gets there through “universal pragmatics”

The conditions necessary for communication to take place People with different goals are able to create norms

Habermas's Discourse Principle

Openness and full inclusion of everybody affectedSymmetrical distribution of communication rightsThe absence of force in which the “forceless force of the better argument” is decisiveThe sincerity of the utterances of all participants is assumedThe outcome of such a rational discourse is a rational consensus to which all possibly affected persons could assent as participants

Our proposal, following Madison...

Create in the democratic wing of the Democratic Party a “faction” that would follow Habermasian principles And engender Discourse Ethics Attracting a political following that can influence American political discourse

While even Habermas felt an element of pessimism over the role of politics in Lifeworld discourse, his original impulse was to overcome the pessimism of his Frankfurt School predecessors

For Enlightenment and Democracy

It's our only hope!