>i sense an odd reduction... in bernstein too,
>of habermas's work on communicative action to the linguistic, ideational
>arm of CA. we shouldn't think of CA as language only or rationality.
>reason is meant to involve action, social action, the practical lived aspect of
>communication and interpretation.
Which is rather amusing, eh? Since his big book is called, The Theory of Communicative ACTION, and his critique of linguistics, from Dilthey to Austin is that they don't have an action-theoretic, they, in essence, fail to grasp that speaking is action oriented: we use language to plan what we're going to do... Although I suspect Habermas has an undialectical obsession with normative foundations, I certainly admire his tenacity to say more than a few words on the matter. Kell, have you read Bernstein's Praxis and Action? (1976). I have it on my shelf but I haven't found the time to read it, is it worthwhile? It gets a lot of positive references in Habermas's work...
ken