>>So if a society does not meet your standards of communicative relations,
>>it is in fact inferior. In what sense is this *not* blatant
>>ethnocentrism?
>
>No society meets these standards, which is why Habermas is a
>critical theorist. It is essential here to grasp the distinction
>between a formal reconstruction of competence (the theoretical
>elaboration of the stages of cognitive development) and the
>objective capacities of a given social form. Habermas theoretically
>defends Kohlberg's notion of 'stage 6' in moral development. And he
>argues that this has been institutionalized, somewhat (and in
>however fragmented a form) in democratic societies. I have a
>difficult time considering that a society who organizes their
>practices around the ritual sacrifice of women as a means of making
>it rain in the spring is the moral par of a society whereby
>everyone, in principle, is protected by legal rights.
In the real world the opposition is never so melodramatic as the hypothetical one of "a society who organizes their practices around the ritual sacrifice of women as a means of making it rain in the spring" versus "a society whereby everyone, in principle, is protected by legal rights." In reality, leftists have confronted such issues as the Iranian Revolution, the Red Army in Afghanistan, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War, the US invasion of Haiti, the NATO bombing of Kosovo, Russia's war against Chechen nationalists, and so on. How does Kohlberg's theory of six stages of "moral development" help us in political understanding & decision-making? Keep in mind that in the world of capitalism & imperialism, "societies" are not discrete entities that are independent of one another, though comparison of the kind you suggest leads us to assume that they are (as in "the USA and Iraq -- which is more morally developed?"). The (economic & political) development (or lack thereof) of poor nations is largely shaped by the (economic & political) development of imperial ones, primarily the USA & secondarily the EU & Japan.
Yoshie