The Concept of Communicative Action - Coursework Example

Summary: Both approaches of Marx and Durkheim have the common idea that wider social forces exert powerful influences on individual behaviour. Although stronger and weaker formulation of the idea, the essential assumption shared by structural approaches is that they seek to explain patterns of individual behaviour in terms of the location of individuals within wider social structures. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that some sociologists have criticized these approaches for understanding the role of individual and communicative action in society. "The concept of communicative action presupposes the use of language as a medium for a kind of reaching understanding, in the course of which participants, through relating to a world, reciprocally raise validity claims that can be accepted or contested." p.99. Context: Habermas focused his attention on epistemology, i.e. how knowledge is related to and affected by the interests of the knower. Habermas became critical of empiricism and positivism because of their assumptions and presuppositions deduced from practical interests in historical and social conditions. Habermas was influenced by Freud in trying to bring knowledge and interest into harmony through self-reflection. Evaluation: In his social theory, Habermas made a critique on Weber's viewpoint on scientism and decisionism. Scientism - is the doctrine that only the results and method (control or manipulation, prediction, technological rationality) of the physical and natural sciences are valid and rational (objective). Decisionism - is a viewpoint concerning the irreducibility of categoral value judgments to scientific knowledge, hence not by scientific method, but the expressions of personal and arbitrary decisions. Thus, value judgments by themselves are purely subjectivistic. For Habermas, the above viewpoints of Weber are reductionist and limiting. Science (physical science) is not the only agency to have accurate and valid knowledge. There are limitations into it so with human sciences. Knowledge and Human Interest Habermas traced the forms of knowledge. Every kind of knowledge takes its root from human interest. Interest - is the basic orientation rooted in specific fundamental conditions of the possible reproduction and self-constitution of the human species, viz, work and interaction. Knowledge-Constitutive Interest - a function of the objectively constituted problems of the preservation of life that have been solved by the cultural form of existence. Cognitive Interest - the relationship or the conforming of motivation and cognition. Knowledge and interest are essentially united. technical interest natural science practical interest human science emancipatory interest critical theory The technical interest relates to the human need to control nature for survival. Labor fulfills this need. Modern science and cost-benefits rationally serve this interest. The practical interest is the interest in human communication, interaction and common life. The discipline of psychology and psychoanalysis is needed. Emancipatory interest is the idea that knowledge must enhance man's freedom and improve human life by emancipating man from oppressive forces, be it in the field of politics, psychology, ideology, etc. The unit of knowledge and self-interest The achievements of the transcendental subject have their basis in the natural history of the human species. Knowledge equally serves as an instrument and transcends mere self-preservation Knowledge constitutive interests take the form in the medium of work, language and power. In the power of self-reflection, knowledge and interest are one. The unity of knowledge and interest proves itself in a dialectic that takes the historical trace of suppressed dialogue and reconstructs what has been suppressed. Approaches in the philosophy of Language The traditional way - it is characterized as interpreting language through the use of etymology, and understanding the application of language in a specific group The method of science (empiricism) - reality can be construed through the use of unbiased representations and symbols. Understanding must not go beyond what is observable or measurable. To dwell into factual realities (application of scientific research). Universal understanding of things To come up with a "monologic understanding" (common language), a common unbiased set of symbols For Habermas, methodological scientific approach in the social sciences may end up into useful generalizations, but it fails to visualize the meaning of man's unique experience. The scientific approach to the study of human experience through the use of a "meta-language" or "universal language" of symbols may be empted of biases, but it may treat human experience in a very limited way. Habermas instead focuses on the main concern of hermeneutics. Linguistic expressions (symbolic expressions) - to generate categorical generalizations, biases and subjective interpretations must be eluded and hence, coming up with neutral symbols of realities. Here, meaning is constant or universal. Action - is considered to be the most direct form of communication. Communication is through communicative action, which is intentional and deliberate action. Experiential expressions - are unlike words or statements that are either true or false. These are the non-deliberate expressions of the human body e.g., non-verbal expressions such as actuations of joy, fear, hunger, embarrassment etc. Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action Communicative Action - is the type of interaction wherein all participants harmonize their individual plans of action with one another and thus pursue their illocutionary aims without reservation. There are 3 Levels: Understanding, Coordination and Association. Characteristics of Communicative Action are: It contains a theory of society as well as an interpretation of modernity and a proposal for a discourse ethics. It develops categories for the understanding of society and modernity. It seeks to reconceptualize ethics as a discourse ethics. It uses the distinction between life world and system to interpret modern society against one-sided idealistic or materialistic interpretation. It reformulates the relation between an internalist and externalist perspective in a comprehensive theory of society Marxism and Habermas Marxism was purposive rational action on an external world. Habermas' involved communication between subjects. Each dimension configured its own mode of knowledge and criteria of rationality. In the sphere of instrumental action, it contains an expanding technical control. In cultural development, it contains the extension of forms of communication free from distortion and domination. The rationality of technological society depend on the policies that subject to public control. The significance of ideology to trace the historical pattern of critical consciousness. The concept of labor as a condition of human existence is a process wherein human beings through their action, mediate, regulate their material exchange with nature. Alienation of labor renders the human condition abstract. Marxism must be remolding into a form of ideological and cultural criticism The threshold of Marx's teleological framework is an abstract notion of man as a potentia containing the yet unrealized creative potential. Cultural critique cannot be disengaged from political critique. Habermas' on History The meaning of history is for practical projection. Objective knowledge of men can establish communication structures free of domination. The emergence of collective practical will is a practical hypothesis. It is an anticipation of a future state of freedom. Historical research is concerned with sociology as a generalizing science. Society must be understood in developmental and evolutionary terms. Realization of global unity and rational social planning. Critical theorist is a configuration of the social reality that analyzes problems and his interest, concepts and judgments, traditional issues and institutions under investigation. The aim is historical and further development of society. Participation in a world structured by beliefs and values. It is a visualization and internalization of the development of man's subjectivity. To generate intersubjective meanings, the nature of discourse must transcend a particular interlocutor through sound argument to gain emancipatory potential within such meanings and expand them beyond the originating discourse (expanding the universal community grounded on openness and free consensus communication). Reflexivity: Variations of argument to be included within the rational set are:- the aesthetic, the therapeutic, the explicative. 1. The aesthetic discourse works by the critics arguments bringing us to see the work or performance which itself demonstrates a value. "A work validated through aesthetic experience can then in turn take the place of an argument and promote the acceptance of precisely those standards according to which it counts as an authentic work." p 20. 2. The therapeutic discourse is that which serves to clarify systematic self deception. We call a person rational "who is both willing and able to free himself from illusions, and indeed from illusions that are based not on errors (about facts) but on self deceptions ..." p.21 3. He explicative focuses on the very means of reaching understanding the means of expression. "We call a person rational if he is ready to come to an understanding and reacts to disturbances by reflecting on linguistic rules." p.21 The most open definition of communicative action given is that it is action in which: "the actors seek to reach an understanding about the action situation and their plans of action in order to coordinate their actions by way of agreement... A type of interaction that is coordinated through speech acts and does not coincide with them." p.101 Habermas, J. 1986. The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Beacon Press Read More