Bugkalots’Communicative Action on Propertyand Inheritance: A Habermasian Discourse

The ability of a cultural community to progress and preserve itself as a distinct people is anchored on a social order that is nurtured and shaped by an oral law, characterized by rational and coordinated action of property ownership, transfer and dispute resolution. Using the theoretical lens of Jurgen Habermas specifically on the concept of “system and lifeworld”, the study aimed to determine the communicative action that exists among Bugkalots which allows rational acceptance of customary laws in the transfer of property and solving disputes related to property ownership. Also, it determined how communicative action is established and shared in the Bugkalot lifeworld and lastly, identify the ethics of discourse which are imbedded in the communicative action that manifest the Bugkalot’s struggle for cultural survival and preservation. Fieldwork, interviews, and case studies were used in the study. Results revealed that one important factor that discourages property disputes especially on ownership and conveyance among Bugkalots is their knowledge of communal ownership. This suggests that their purpose of ownership is not egocentric ownership but an act of reaching understanding. Community members can still be oriented to their own interests, but they do this under conditions which harmonize their plans of action on the basis of common situation definitions, that is, the essence of Habermas’ Communicative Action.

Cosi fan tutte: Information, Beliefs, and Compliance with Norms

SummarySocial norms help to solve collective dilemmas. In addition to the internalization of norms, social control, rational calculation, and rational acceptance, this paper analyzes the role of information in regard to compliance with norms. We predict that people will cooperate if they believe that others will cooperate as well, and that they will defect if they believe that others will defect. Each reaction respresents a rational course of action. Beliefs about the validity of norms are influenced by information, whether public (as obtained from the media) or private (gained from personal experience), with which individuals update their beliefs. Complementing existing explanations of norm compliance, this paper studies the effect on norm compliance of information which allows individuals to adjust beliefs about whether a norm is valid. The empirical findings based on a multilevel analysis of survey data from 24 countries strongly confirm the prediction that collectively held beliefs about the validity of norms are a major factor in determining compliance, comparable in its strength to the internalization of norms.

Religious Pluralism as a Problem for ‘Practical’ Religious Epistemology

After being dismissed for decades in philosophical theology, experiential arguments for the justification of religious belief, including belief in God, have again come to centre stage. One of the most thorough of these is William Alston's recent study, Perceiving God. Alston's purpose is to show that it is rational for someone to participate in what he calls Christian Mystical Practice (CMP) because CMP ‘is a socially established doxastic practice that is not demonstrably unreliable or otherwise disqualified for rational acceptance’ and to hold beliefs which that participation reliably generates. The thesis of this essay is that his individuation of mystical practices is not sufficiently nuanced. Once his naturalistic approach is brought more closely into line with actual practices, what he calls CMP splinters into multiple practices. A more complete account requires a more pluralistic understanding of the Christian traditions than Alston acknowledges.