Marx and Habermas Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marx and Habermas - Research Paper ExampleA article of belief or theory may produce successful predictions, as in the case of Newtonian mechanics, and tho not be confessedly that is, rationally justifiable in the long run. Indeed, Thomas Kuhns study of scientific revolutions, which Habermas cites, indicates that the most basic propositions of a scientific theory are worked out in advance of evidential confirmationThis happens in conversations among scientists about what counts as a pressing problem, how such a problem ought to be conceptualized, and so forth. Such propositions are irreducible to empirical predictions. For it is only when they are taken in junto with one an new(prenominal) that they yield testable hypotheses. Consequently, their truth would have to be captured in terms of an ideal consensus. Thus, true propositions are those which anyone would agree to in the long run, given sufficient time for rational reflection. (Deborah 2004) The fact that scientific truth p resupposes the existence of a communicative community leads Habermas to consider the categorical framework in which intersubjective meaning, mensurate and validity are constituted. It is clear how predictive science is related to the context of instrumental action. (Allen, 2009) It is as well as obvious that the anthropological usefulness and transcendental validity of science resides in its successful satisfaction of a technological interest. However, it is unclear what, if any, interest is satisfied by communication. Equally unclear is the relationship between communication and those sciences of cosmos associated with history, literature, cultural anthropology, etc. Nevertheless, Habermas depart argue that the kind of textual interpretation preferred by these sciences is indwellingly related to communication. The latter, in turn, will be shown to satisfy a practical interest in procuring intersubjective agreement, regarding dual-lane norms and values. This is a necessary c ondition, not only for the creation and maintenance of personal and social identicalness, but also for the achievement of individual freedom. Peirce provided the necessary link connecting the logic of causal explanation to Marxs notion of labor as an activity underlying self-realization and world constitution. (Moore and Robin, 1964) Dilthey provides a similar link connecting communication and symbolic discernment to Hegels master-slave dialectic. This dialectic shows how ones identity is defined and confirmed through recognition by other. For Dilthey, this dialectic is as essential to the methodological grounding of history, philology, and literary criticism-sciences concerned with understanding the spiritual life of humankindas causal explanation is to the methodological grounding of the natural sciences. The method of understanding grounding the human sciences is none other than the circular interpretation of textual wholes in terms of their parts, and the interpretation of the se parts in terms of more than inclusive wholes. This circular dialectic also encompasses the interpreter. The interpreter is responsible for much of the meaning contained in the text. At the same time, the text is responsible for opening up new meaning for the interpreter. Stated somewhat paradoxically, text and interpreter mutually constitute one another as meaningful identities. This activity of symbolic reproduction, Habermas will argue, is capable of advancing moral knowledge. Yet, it can do so only to the extent that the dialectic between text and interpreter assumes the form of a simulated dialogue. (Habermas, 1872) According to Dilthey, the understanding of the past, or the interpretation of an past text, is an elaboration of the sort of retrospective self interpretation that an individual continually engages in, while reconstituting the continuity of his or her life history--the very substance of ones unique identity. (Hodges. 1944) To begin with, the generation and maint enance of a stable, personal identity involves assigning ones