Ethical foundations of the left

Ian Murray seamus2001 at home.com
Tue Jul 31 15:21:55 PDT 2001



> And Habermas would agree, 100% - and he would add that these things
have
> been institutionalized according to the dictates of instrumental
reason,
> which is contrary to the potential of our human capacity to adopt a
> communicative perspective - which is what the dominators had to do
when
> they decided to rule the world.
>
> The problem is this: if instrumental reason is 'the whole' - then
criticism
> cannot exist, because if instrumental reason is equated with
domination,
> then there can be no assurance that the critique is not one more
piece of
> domination manifesting itself. In other words, criticism becomes
groundless.
>
> Habermas escapes this aporia by pointing to a more differentiated
> understanding of reason, which is completely irreducible to
instrumental
> reason.
>
> ken
======= Metaphor alert[s]!

Ian



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