HABERMAS' IDEAL SPEECH SITUATION

[Ralph Dumain]

Thanks for your latest reponse, Ken, and now let me go back to an earlier
response of yours:

At 12:41 PM 10/23/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>For Habermas wit, fiction, and irony (see page 332 TCA, Vol 2) are 
>manifestations of the confusion between matters of subjectivity, 
>intersubjectivity and objectivity. In short, from the perspective of a
theory 
>of communicative action, they are irrational whenever they are employed
within 
>the confines of an argument - irrational (pathological) in the sense of
being 
>"concealed forms of strategic action." For the most part, I agree with your 
>analysis, which I don't think actually contradicts much of what was said.
Yes, 
>Habermas argues that works of art, poetry and so on do contribute to 
>motivational questions: but, in the final analysis, these things do not hold 
>any normative force and their introduction into discourses is nothing less 
>than distorting - which is what I meant when I said there is an obligation 
>implied by Habermas that they must be translated into argumentative claims.

This is very interesting.  I think I'm compelled to agree if the ultimate
issue is translatability rather than the communicative value of these forms
themselves.  It's like saying that literature is permissible so long as
literary criticism is always to hand as part of the conversation.  There is
then the strong claim that nothing substitutes for explicit logical
discourse in democratic communications, and that metaphorical language can
never do the job.  Is this because of the latter's inherent shortcomings,
or is it more a matter of the indeterminacy of its reception?  I see many
complications in this picture, but, with some reluctance, I suppose I will
have to agree.  But consider the implications of what follows regarding
aphorisms, poetry, fiction, drama, film, painting, cartoons, etc.  How
would one evaluate the use of proverbs in African legal argument?  What
becomes of zen koans?  Metaphorical expression need not be manipulative or
fetishistic or even opaque, though its ritualistic uses are all too pervasive.

Has anyone applied Habermas' ideas to the analysis of real-life scenarios?
I take it he himself was moved to develop these ideas because of German
circumstances?  He was born during the Nazi regime, was he not?



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