scholarly journals The Neo-Enlightenment Aesthetics of Jürgen Habermas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otília Beatriz Fiori Arantes ◽  
Paulo Eduardo Arantes

This essay was prepared especially for the issue 49 of Cultural Critique (2001) as an extract of the argument presented in Otília and Paulo Arantes’ book Um Ponto Cego no Projeto Moderno de Jürgen Habermas (A blind spot in Jürgen Habermas’ Modern Project, 1992) (which remain untranslated into English). While Habermas has seldom addressed the question of aesthetic directly, here the authors reconstruct why architecture becomes the aesthetic side of predilection for him. What the authors call a “neo-Enlightenment aesthetics” in Habermas involves a reconfiguration of the judgement of taste, as conceived in the Enlightenment, but now projected through the lens of communicative action where the rules of engagement have left the spectacle behind. A Kantian aesthetic with airs of Benjamin and Brecht, they contend, became the ingredients which Habermas tried to get beyond the impasse that Peter Bürger had already pointed out with regard to idealist aesthetics, namely how the process of the autonomization of art is simultaneously a process both of its consolidation and its eventual demise. How then to talk about aesthetics after Avant-Garde? For Habermas, architecture becomes a place of encounter for his own ideas about the public sphere, rational engagement, and aesthetic engagement. The Arantes, however, contest Habermas’ abstract defense of Modern Architecture by showing how, in the word and specially in Brazil, each phase of its development is intimately tied to specific moments in capitalism development. They follow in Adorno’s footsteps in arguing that the site of Modern Architecture in Brazil is a cipher of glass and concrete that evinces the silence of the spellbound rather than the emergence of a public genre with enlightenment functions. (Sílvia Lopes)   Keywords: Habermas, Modernity, Modern Design, Modern Movement, Postmodernism, Ideology, History, Benjamin, Utopia, Communicative Action, Linguistic Turn, Enlightenment, Reason, Critical Theory, Welfare, Brazil.

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Clovis Ricardo Montenegro de Lima

In this article we wish to establishthe relationshipbetween discourse, as a special formofcommunicative action, and the humanization in health care organizations. This whole discussion has strong references in Jürgen Habermas´s theories of communicative action and discourse. It starts with thecriticismof thebureaucratizationof health organizations done bymedicalrationalization, which createsa profoundasymmetry betweenhealth professionals andpatients. This inequalityimplieslossof the human dimension in health care. It focuses onthe issue of powerand the possibilityofrational reconstructionof relationsfrom adiscourse ethics.  Itdiscussesthe issueof health policiesin the public sphere. We wonderhowthe average citizencaneffectively participate inthediscussion ofthese policies, if theydo not havethe expertiseof physicians. Thesame asymmetrybetween health professionals and patientsis reproducedin the public sphere, creating a political issue in democratic societies. Arational reconstructionof a health policyrequiresa formofdeliberativedecision.  The lossof the human dimension in health careand the healthpolicy decision-makingproblemseem tofindspaceinthecomplexity ofhealth care. The discussion about quality involves consideringthe indicators producedbyspecializedmedical knowledge, however,theyrequirethe mediationof interests ofhealthcare professionalsand patients.This diversityof perspectivesrequiresprocedures thatprovideunderstandingbetween the partiesfor the construction ofrationalagreementsfor common action. These procedures progress betweenethics and politics. We believe thatthese procedures shouldbe based on discourse. LINGUAGEM, DISCURSO E HUMANISMO NAS ORGANIZAÇÕES DE SAÚDE ResumoNeste artigo pretende-se estabelecer relações entre o discurso, como uma forma especial de ação comunicativa, e a humanização nas organizações de cuidados com a saúde. A argumentação referencia-se fortemente nas teorias da ação da ação comunicativa e do discurso de  Jürgen Habermas. Inicia-se com uma abordagem crítica da burocratização das organizações de saúde pela racionalização médica, criando uma profunda assimetria entre profissionais e pacientes. Esta desigualdade implica na perda da dimensão humana no cuidado com a saúde. Focaliza-se a questão do poder e na possibilidade de uma reconstrução racional das relações a partir da ética do discurso. Discute a questão das políticas de saúde na esfera pública. Indaga-se como o cidadão médio pode efetivamente participar na discussão destas políticas uma vez que não possui a expertise dos médicos. A mesma assimetria entre profissionais de saúde e pacientes se reproduz na esfera pública, constituindo uma questão política em sociedades democráticas. Uma reconstrução da política de saúde requer uma forma deliberativa de decisão. A perda da dimensão humana no cuidado com a saúde e o problema das decisões em política de saúde parecem encontrar espaço na complexidade dos cuidado com a saúde. As discussões sobre qualidade devem ter em conta os indicadores produzidos pelo conhecimento médico especializado, entretanto, requerem mediações ente os interesses dos profissionais de saúde e dos pacientes. A diversidade de perspectivas requere procedimentos que provenham entendimento entre as partes para construção racional de argumentos para ação em comum. Estes procedimentos avançam entre ética e política. Acredita-se que estes procedimentos podem ser baseados no discurso.


Daímon ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
César Ortega Esquembre

El objetivo de este artículo es defender que la pragmática transcendental ofrece la fundamentación normativa de la teoría crítica como teoría de la acción comunicativa. Para ello se expondrá en primer lugar el problema de la normatividad en la Teoría Crítica de la sociedad. Tras describir la forma que adquiere esta teoría tras el giro lingüístico operado por Jürgen Habermas, se reconstruirán en tercer lugar los elementos fundamentales de la pragmática transcendental apeliana y habermasiana. En cuarto y último lugar se mostrará que este modelo constituye la fundamentación normativa de la nueva teoría crítica. The aim of this paper is to argue that transcendental pragmatics constitutes the normative foundation of critical theory, understood as theory of communicative action. To that end, the issue of normativity within Critical Theory discussions is first exposed. After describing the form this theory takes from the linguistic turn carried out by Jürgen Habermas, key elements of Karl Otto Apel´s and Jürgen Habermas´ transcendental pragmatics are thirdly reconstructed. Fourth paragraph shows that this model operates as the normative foundation of the new critical theory.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-498
Author(s):  
Maureen Junker-Kenny

Concepts of ‘public reason’ vary according to the underlying understandings of theoretical and practical reason; they make a difference to what can be argued for in the public sphere as justified expectations to oneself and fellow-citizens. What is the significance for the scope of ethics when two neo-Kantian theorists of public reason, John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas, propose a reduced reading of the ‘antinomy’ highlighted in Kant’s analysis of practical reason? The desire for meaning, unrelinquishable for humans, is frustrated when moral initiatives are met with hostility. Kant resolves the antinomy between morality and happiness by invoking the concept of a creator God whose concern that our anticipatory moral actions should not fail encourages the hope on which human agency relies. Defining the scope of ethics by the unconditional character of reason ( Vernunft) rules out the minimisation of ethics to what can safely be expected to be delivered.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Müller-Doohm

The label ‘Frankfurt School’ became popular in the ‘positivism dispute’ in the mid-1960s, but this article shows that it is wrong to describe Jürgen Habermas as representing a ‘second generation’ of exponents of critical theory. His communication theory of society is intended not as a transformation of, but as an alternative to, the older tradition of thought represented by Adorno and Horkheimer. The novel and innovative character of Habermas’s approach is demonstrated in relation to three thematic complexes: (1) the public sphere and language; (2) democracy and the constitutional state; and (3) system and lifeworld as categories for a theory of modernity.


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