The weekly discussion questions:  In the interest of promoting discussion both in the seminar and outside it, you are asked to submit electronically 2-3 brief questions or statements that you think it would be good to discuss in class. Questions should be posted as early as possible, by Tuesday evening at the latest.   The postings will be to a web site discussion forum, which will then give you the opportunity to respond to one another’s questions in a convenient way.
You can get the URL for the discussion forum from me if you've misplaced it.

REQUIRED TEXTS: The Theory of Communicative Action (2 vols.) and Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action both available at the bookstore in Mallinckrodt.  There is also a packet of readings, from which you will need to make your own copies.
 

Jan. 20   Questions, Clarification, and Notes for Week 2
"Dogmatism, Reason, and Decision: On Theory and Praxis in our Scientific Civilization" (1963)
Introduction to revised edition of Theory and Practice: "Some Difficulties in the Attempt to Link Theory and Praxis" (1971)

Jan. 27 Questions, Clarification, and Notes for Week 3
Theory of Communicative Action, ch. 1: "Approaches to the Problem of Rationality" (TCA 1:1-74) ; plus 136-45, 216-22
"Dialectics of Rationalization" (Interview, 1981), esp. pp. 103-15.
     Summary of key points in this interview (by Michele Pase)

Feb. 3 Questions, Clarification, and Notes for Week 4
Theory of Communicative Action, ch. 3: "Social Action, Purposive Activity, and Communication" (TCA 1:273-337).  Optional:  Chapter I, section 3 (pp. 85-101).
Recommended: Maeve Cooke, "Introduction to On the Pragmatics of Language"
Handout for discussion of Habermas's pragamtics of communication

Feb. 10
"Actions, Speech Acts, Linguistically Mediated Interactions, and the Lifeworld" (1988)
Outline and Commentary on this Essay
Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 2, pp. 119-25 (on the "lifeworld")
"Some Further Clarifications of the Concept of Communicative Rationality" (1996) (NEW Date!)

Feb. 17
"Richard Rorty's Pragmatic Turn" (1996)

Feb. 24
"A Genealogical Analysis of the Cognitive Content of Morality" (An Outline of this Article)
"Life-Forms, Morality, and the Task of the Philosopher", esp. pp. 199-207 (Interview, 1984)
Recommended: Thomas McCarthy, "Introduction to Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action".

No class on March 3, due to Spring Break.

Mar 10
"Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification" (1983) in Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action (MCCA).

Mar 17
"Morality and Ethical Life: Does Hegel's Critique of Kant Apply to Discourse Ethics?" (1986) in MCCA
"On the Pragmatic, Ethical, and Moral Employments of Practical Reason" (1988)
"Discourse Ethics, Law, and Sittlichkeit" (Interview, 1990)

Mar 24
The Theory of Communicative Action, ch. 5: "The Paradigm Shift in Mead and Durkheim: From Purposive Activity to Communicative Action" (TCA 2: 1-92)

Mar 31
"Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action" (1983) in MCCA.
NPR broadcast on moral stages as they affect Clinton's impeachment (9 min; requires RealAudio)

Apr 7
The Theory of Communicative Action, ch. 6: "System and Lifeworld" (TCA 2: 113-8, 135-97).

Apr 14
The Theory of Communicative Action, selections from ch. 8 on modernization, rationalization, and the "colonization of the lifeworld" (TCA 2: 301-56)
"The Crisis of the Welfare State and the Exhaustion of Utopian Energies" (1985)
Recommended: "What Theory Can Accomplish, and What It Can’t Accomplish" (interview; 1991)

Apr 21
Between Facts and Norms, ch. 1: "Law as a Category of Social Mediation between Facticity and Validity"
"Popular Sovereignty as Procedure" (1988)

Papers are due Friday, April 30 before 5 pm in my box in Busch 225.