Discourse Philosophy as a Critical Framework

Abstract

After having provided a general overview of the transformations within the critical tradition, I briefly indicated the need for a more expanded consideration of plurality and globalization. I shall now discuss in more detail the Discourse Philosophy developed jointly by Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel. They provide a basis upon which I can address this issue. In relying on these two authors, I relate their respective positions on normativity to questions about community, human rights, and cosmopolitan ideals and acknowledge their internal differences: the Discourse Ethics developed by Apel according to his Transcendental Pragmatics stresses the importance of a community of communication while the Discourse Theory based on the Formal or Universal Pragmatics brought forward by Habermas emphasizes the concept of discourse. Despite differences between them, they both rescue and update Kant’s views, review the shortcomings of Critical Theory, and offer a robust communicative account of normativity. Habermas’s defense of the juridification and institutionalization of legal and political norms are widely known, but I establish a counterpoint between his views and Apel’s approach to the justification and application of ethical norms. Apel’s philosophy has been accused of being highly abstract, but this criticism can be addressed by accepting some of Habermas’s suggestions.