Showing papers in "Critical Horizons in 2004"
TL;DR: The authors argue that the normativity of social orders can be found in the very experience of those who suffer injustice, leading to a radical theory and critique of society, with the potential to provide an innovative theory of social movements and a valid alternative to political liberalism.
Abstract: Honneth's fundamental claim that the normativity of social orders can be found nowhere but in the very experience of those who suffer injustice leads, I argue, to a radical theory and critique of society, with the potential to provide an innovative theory of social movements and a valid alternative to political liberalism.
30 citations
TL;DR: Theodor Adorno's concept of natural history was central for a number of Adorno theoretical projects, but remains elusive as mentioned in this paper, distinguishing between a reflection on the normative and methodological bases of philosophical anthropology and critical social science, a conception of critical memory oriented toward the preservation of the memory of historical suffering, and the notion of mindfulness of nature in the subject.
Abstract: Theodor Adorno's concept of ‘natural history’ [Naturgeschichte] was central for a number of Adorno's theoretical projects, but remains elusive. In this essay, analyse different dimensions of the concept of natural history, distinguishing amongst (a) a reflection on the normative and methodological bases of philosophical anthropology and critical social science; (b) a conception of critical memory oriented toward the preservation of the memory of historical suffering; and (c) the notion of ‘mindfulness of nature in the subject’ provocatively asserted in Max Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment. These strands are united by the notion of transience and goal of developing a critical theory sensitive to the transient in history. The essay concludes by suggesting some implications of an expanded concept of natural history for issues in the discourse theory of Jurgen Habermas.
29 citations
TL;DR: In the development of modern philosophy self-consciousness was not generally or unanimously given important consideration as mentioned in this paper, because philosophers such as Descartes, Kant and Fichte thought it served as the highest principle from which we can deduce all propositions that rightly claimed validity.
Abstract: In the development of modern philosophy self-consciousness was not generally or unanimously given important consideration. This was because philosophers such as Descartes, Kant and Fichte thought it served as the highest principle from which we can ‘deduce’ all propositions that rightly claimed validity. However, the Romantics thought that the consideration of self-consciousness was of the highest importance even when any claim to foundationalism was abandoned. In this respect, Holderlin and his circle, as well as Novalis and Schleiermacher, thought that self-consciousness, itself, was not a principle but must be ranked on a minor or dependent level, and presupposed the Absolute as a superior but inaccessible condition or ground. This reservation did not hinder them from recognising that the foundationalist Fichte was the first to have shown conclusively that from Descartes, via German Rationalism and British Empiricism, up to Kant, self-consciousness was misconceived of as the result of an act of...
19 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors take issue with Axel Honneth's proposal for renewing critical theory in terms of the normative ideal of self-realisation, and leave open the question of what form the renewal of critical theory should take.
Abstract: In this paper, I take issue with Axel Honneth's proposal for renewing critical theory in terms of the normative ideal of ‘self-realisation’. Honneth's proposal involves a break with critical theory's traditional preoccupation with the meaning and potential of modern reason, and the way he makes that break depletes the critical resources of his alternative to Habermasian critical theory, leaving open the question of what form the renewal of critical theory should take.
19 citations
TL;DR: The self-limiting revolutions of 1989 in Central Europe offer an alternative paradigm of revolutionary change that is reminiscent more of the American struggle for independence in 1776 than the Jacobin tendencies that grew out of the French Revolution of 1789 as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The self-limiting revolutions of 1989 in Central Europe offer an alternative paradigm of revolutionary change that is reminiscent more of the American struggle for independence in 1776 than the Jacobin tendencies that grew out of the French Revolution of 1789 In order to understand the contradictory impulses of the revolutions of 1989—the desire for a radical renewal and the concern for preservation—this article takes as its point of departure the political thought of Hannah Arendt and Edmund Burke
9 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that modernity can only be properly understood when tragedy is viewed as one of the conditions internal to it and that tragedy is not mutually exclusive, as Hegel and Schlegel, for example both argue, but mutually inclusive.
Abstract: This paper argues that modernity can only be properly understood when tragedy is viewed as one of the conditions internal to it. Modernity and tragedy are not mutually exclusive, as Hegel and Schlegel, for example both argue, but mutually inclusive. Each is determined by the other—as tragic modernity and as modern tragedy.
5 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that there is an ethics of contemplation that is internal to Adorno's critique of modern functionalised and administered societies, and that "contemplation" is Adorno" name for a praxis by which one is open to the other, and yet can let the other be.
Abstract: This paper argues that there is an ethics of contemplation that is internal to Adorno's critique of modern functionalised and administered societies. It is argued here that ‘contemplation’ is Adorno's name for a praxis by which one is open to the other, and yet can let the other be. Adorno sees a kernel of experience in such contemplative practices, which, although increasingly being stripped bare by the modern world, is the basis for its possible critique.
4 citations
3 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the relationship between the normative sense of mutual recognition and phenomenological cases of unequal recognition in the account of self-consciousness, and argued that rational freedom provides the key to grasping the relation between the ontological and normative senses of recognition.
Abstract: This paper examines the theme of recognition in Hegel's account of self-consciousness, suggesting that there are unresolved difficulties with the relationship between the normative sense of mutual recognition and phenomenological cases of unequal recognition. Recent readings of Hegel deal with this problem by positing an implicit distinction between an ‘ontological’ sense of recognition as a precondition for autonomous subjectivity, and a ‘normative’ sense of recognition as embodied in rational social and political institutions. Drawing on recent work by Robert Pippin and Axel Honneth, I argue that Hegel's conception of rational freedom provides the key to grasping the relationship between the ontological and normative senses of recognition. Recognitive freedom provides a way of appropriating Hegel's theory of recognition for contemporary social philosophy.
3 citations
TL;DR: One of the many themes to which Agnes Heller's philosophy returns again and again is the theme of the home of the moderns as discussed by the authors, which opens onto the existential and multi-dimensional nature of the human condition in modernity, which her work permanently addresses.
Abstract: One of the many themes to which Agnes Heller's philosophy returns again and again is the theme of the home of the moderns. Although not necessarily her central philosophical theme, nonetheless, it opens onto the existential and multi-dimensional nature of the human condition in modernity, which her work permanently addresses.
1 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed study of the eighteenth century origins and contemporary philosophical implications of a unique kind of direct self-awareness is provided. But the growing significance of this phenomenon is closely related to three interconnected developments in modern philosophy, which they describe as the subjective turn, the aesthetic turn, and the historical turn.
Abstract: In Selbstgefuhl, Manfred Frank provides a detailed study of the eighteenth century origins and contemporary philosophical implications of a unique kind of direct self-awareness. The growing significance of this phenomenon is closely related to three interconnected developments in modern philosophy, which I describe as the ‘subjective turn’, the ‘aesthetic turn’, and the ‘historical turn’. While following Frank in emphasising key concepts in the first of these two turns, I add a stress on the historical turn in post-Kantian philosophical writing.
TL;DR: This paper argued that Popper's work, seen from the vantage point of increasing historical distance, can be viewed as the first attempt to understand the grand narrative as the adjustment of metaphysics to the modern world.
Abstract: This essay argues that Popper's work, seen from the vantage point of increasing historical distance, can be viewed as the first attempt to understand the grand narrative as the adjustment of metaphysics to the modern world. When viewed from such a distance enduring questions regarding holism, identity, essentialism, and truth can once again be thrown into relief, together with the pressing issues of the paradox of freedom and sovereignty.
TL;DR: Schleiermacher's Dialectic as discussed by the authors is regarded as belonging to what Habermas terms "post-metaphysical thinking" and has been regarded as a theologian and theorist of textual interpretation.
Abstract: Schleiermacher rarely features in the now widespread discussion of the relevance of the German Idealist and Romantic traditions for contemporary philosophy because he has mainly been regarded as a theologian and theorist of textual interpretation. This essay shows that his most important philosophical work, the Dialectic, involves many ideas concerning truth and language which are generally regarded as belonging to what Habermas terms ‘post-metaphysical thinking’. Schleiermacher's views of truth and language are contrasted with those of Habermas and Rorty, and are seen as being of more than merely historical interest. His reflections on self-consciousness are shown to raise important questions for contemporary accounts of the relationship of the subject to language.