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>CB: "that theoretical ___?? can guide..." His theory ?
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>In other words, he is not promising us a rose garden ?
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>Ok but what recommends his theory over the theory I already have ? I've
>got a pretty big theory already, one which has generated a lot of
>practice. Marxism and Frederick Douglassism is a theory for guiding
>practice. You know the whole rigamarole. Why would I drop
>Douglassism/Marxism and take up Habermas' theory ? ( I realize you may
>have addressed this in the long
among other things, Habermas is concerned with social movements. habermas follows marx's claim that we must begin where people are actually engaged in struggle and advance these struggles. engaging in research on why struggles fail and why they succeed is part of the process of the dialectic between theory and practice, is it not?
so, like you and marx, his answer is _practice_ (as well as scientific research program to elaborate and strengthen his theories as against those who are enamored of german idealism and standpoint theories). in on of his latest publications, he deal with action research which deals with human practices in social struggles on several different levels.
additionally, there are people who have developed habermas's framework, namely alan Touraine which they tentatively called "sociological intervention" which they bring to movements such as the anti nuclear protests in France and the Solidarity struggle in Poland:
"On the one hand, if he adopts tha attitude of remote observer, he cannot reach the very thing he seeks to understand...Conversely, if he identifies with the actors' struggle, he cases to be an analyst and becomes nothing more than a doncrinarie ideologists; in this case, his role ecome entirely negative" (Touraine, 1982)
(i can't think of anyone better exemplifies doing the above than Marx at the mement!)
here are the quotes. theory does not dictate practice. it exists in dialectical relationship with practice. there are no quarantees, no. and why should there be since if we dream of deliverance from the struggle, we will do nothing.
.the insight that understanding [interpretation]--no matter how controlled it may be--cannot simply leap over the interpreter's relationships to tradition [is certainly correct]. But from the fact that understanding is structurally a part of the traditions that it further develops through appropriation, it does not follow that the medium of tradition is not profoundly altered by reflection. ... Gadamer fails to appreciate the power of reflection that is developed in understanding. This type of reflection does *NOT* detach itself from the soil of contingency on which it finds itself. But in grasping the genesis of the tradition from which it proceeds and on which it *turns its back*, reflection shakes the dogmatism of life practices.
as for the relationship between theory and practice:
While the theory legitimizes the work of enlightenment [by which he *only* means theoretical/research discourse which helps understand our historical circumstances/political state of affairs], as well as providing its own refutation when communication fails, it can by no means legitimate 'a fortiori' the risky decisions of strategic action. Decisions for political struggle cannot at the outset be justified theoretically and then be carried out organizationally. The sole possible justification at this level is consensus, aimed at in practical discourse, among the participants, who, in the consciousness of their common interests [in terms of how to engage in political practice whether single issue or not] and their knowledge of the circumstances, of the consequences, are the only ones who can know what risks they are willing to undergo, and with what expectations. There can be no theory which at the outset can assure a world- historical mission....
...while the vindicating superiorty of those who do the enlightening over those who are to be enlightened is theoretically unavoidable...at the same time it is fictive and requires its own critique in a process of enlightenment there can only be participants...