Habermas' account of normative knowledge seems rather similar to that proposed by pragmatist philosopher Morton White. White proposes extending W.V. Quine's 'Duhemian holism' to encompass normative as well as factual or descriptive propositions. (Quine's 'Duhemian holism' is the thesis that proposition are never tested against reality as isolated statements but only as members of larger networks). This extension becomes possible in White's view with the realization of the entanglement of facts and values so that normative propositions can then be included in the networks of propositions (or what Quine would call the "web of belief").
Jim Farmelant
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