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Explores the political implications of Habermas's theory of discourse ethics through a resurrection of its radical potential when applied to participants in decision-making groups.

By focusing the various difficulties encountered in applying theory to practical concerns, this book explores the reasons for the absence of a radical politics in Habermas's work. In doing so, it shows that certain political implications of the theory remain unexplored. The book articulates a unique application of Habermasian theory, the actual functioning of decision-making groups, the nature of deliberative interaction, and the kinds of judgments participants must make if they are to preserve their democratic process.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction(p. ix)
• Part 1 Theory and Practice
• Chapter 1 The Theory of Discourse Ethics(p. 3)
• Habermas on justification
• Dilemmas upon application
• Chapter 2 Theory with a Practical Intent(p. 19)
• The relation of theory to practice
• Aristotle's distinction between techne and phronesis
• Practical intentions
• Part 2 From the Ideal to the Real
• Chapter 3 The Affirmative Uses of Theory(p. 35)
• As an interpretative tool--Cultural criticism
• As an empirical tool--Critical sociological research
• As a test for legitimacy--Democratic political theory
• Sum of affirmative uses of theory and attendant problems
• Chapter 4 Methodological Problems and the Limits to Theory(p. 59)
• The distinction between morality and ethics
• Institutional design as a category mistake
• Dryzek's attempt to overcome the limits
• Formulating the limits to theory
• Concerning judgment
• Part 3 The Nature of Political Judgment
• Chapter 5 Habermasian Difficulties with Judgment(p. 85)
• Justification and application
• Critiques of the Habermasian account of judgment
• The reflective turn
• Chapter 6 Discursive Phronesis with a Cognitivist Core(p. 107)
• How do we evaluate fairness?
• Judgments that preserve fairness
• Part 4 Real Participation
• Chapter 7 Changing the Object Domain of Application(p. 131)
• Democracy from the theorist's perspective
• Democracy from the participant's perspective
• Chapter 8 Toward a Democratic Politics(p. 141)
• Judgments regarding the redemption of trade-offs
• More problems for participants
• Conclusion
• Notes(p. 159)
• Bibliography(p. 207)
• Index(p. 225)

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CHOICE Review

Blaug ends his work by summarizing his intent: noting that J"urgen Habermas once remarked that he could only imagine a democratic society "as a self-controlled learning process," Blaug describes his own inquiry as "an extended meditation on this remark." After presenting the Habermasian viewpoint and extensively reviewing the secondary literature, Blaug attempts to show that Habermas's own pessimism about the prospects of establishing a democratic society is the unwarranted result of the abstract level of his theory, the limits Habermas placed on its application, Habermas's concept of judgement, and his tendency to think of democracy only at the "macro-level." By revising the concept of judgment (to "a discursive phronesis with a cognitivist core"), and presenting its applications at the "pico-level" of first-order communities, Blaug hopes to rescue Habermasian theory from practical irrelevance. The book is the thickest 157 pages this reviewer has read in a long time. Blaug's language is highly technical and specialized, and the precision of his vocabulary is often paid for in the coin of obscurity. He writing is erudite, and the ideas are subtle and esoteric. Recommended for graduate students, faculty, and professionals only: don't try this at home. M. Berheide; Berea College

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Ricardo Blaug is Lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Leeds.