v. 1. Towards a transcendental semiotics -- v. 2. Ethics and the theory of rationality.

Collected together for the first time in English, Karl-Otto Apel’s most recent work covers a broad spectrum of philosophical issues. Highly original, this work will be valuable to academics and students concerned with (post-) analytic philosophy, epistemology, history of science, Heidegger’s fundamental ontology, current debates about transcendental modes of argument, second-generation Frankfurt School thinkers and American pragmatists. It will be no less useful to all those interested in reformulations of Kantian themes and redefinitions of older ideas within the (...) linguistic paradigm, as well as those who, being familiar with Habermas’s work, wish to know more about the controversies and debates within the circle of the Frankfurt School itself. (shrink)

Reflecting a revival of Peirce studies and the rediscovery of the pragmatist tradition in American philosophical thinking, this study articulates a contemporary and relevant interpretation that may offer a challenge to neo-pragmatists.

The present book tries to show that the transcentendal-pragmatic approach to discourse ethics can reconstruct the genesis of this situation and provide a ...

Bd. 1. Sprachanalytik, Semiotik, Hermeneutik. Bd. 2. Das Apriori der Kommunikationsgemeinschaft.

W wywiadzie z Karlem-Otto Aplem, jaki przeprowadził i w roku 1987 opublikował Florian Rötzer, omówionych zostało szereg wątków rozwijanej przez Apla filozofii transcendentalno-pragmatycznej. Wywiad ukazuje, co było przedmiotem głównych sporów i dyskusji prowadzonych w owym czasie przez tego obrońcę rozumu i racjonalistycznej tradycji w filozofii, który występował przeciwko wszelkiemu radykalnemu sceptycyzmowi i znany był przede wszystkim jako filozof broniący tezy o potrzebie i o możliwości dostarczenia uzasadnienia ostatecznego. Karl-Otto Apel wyjaśnia w tym wywiadzie, jak należy tę tezę (...) rozumieć oraz na czym polega ostateczne uzasadnienie transcendentalno-pragmatyczne. W wywiadzie wyjaśnione też zostaje, czym jest argument z performatywnej samozaprzeczalności, który wykorzystywany jest w procedurze ostatecznego uzasadniania. W swych odpowiedziach Apel odnosi się do krytyk kierowanych pod adresem etyki dyskursowej, jej „formalizmu” o kantowskiej proweniencji ; krytyczne uwagi kieruje pod adresem rzeczników postnowoczesności i postmodernizmu. W swych wywodach Apel broni uniwersalistycznej etyki oraz Kantowskiego, czysto formalnego obrazu człowieka jako obrazu, który zarazem stwarza warunki dla kulturowego pluralizmu oraz swobodnego artykułowania niezgody, a także dla poszukiwania konsensu. (shrink)

In his preface to the English edition, Apel (identified with critical theory) explains that the title of his two-volume German collection connotes both a reconstruction of the process of hermeneutic transformation in recent philosophy and the author's semiotical transformation of transcendental logic. The emphasis here is on the latter with discussions of the a priori nature of language per Wittgenstein, Peirce, and Chomsky, and its implications for a rational foundation for ethics in modern science. Includes a new foreword. Name index (...) only. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR. (shrink)

In this article the author tries to give an answer - from the point of view of the transcendental pragmatic foundation of discourse ethics - to the title question, which was raised by the Unesco conferences entitled `Universal Ethics' in Paris (27 March 1997) and Naples (December 1997). The article should be understood as a supplement to the empiristic-comparative responses of S. Bok and H. Küng, and especially to the communitarian approach of M. Walzer, proposed at the first conference. Unlike (...) traditional rationalism, this approach does not try to deduce concrete moral norms from axiomatic first principles; it begins with transcendental reflection on the undeniable moral presuppositions of argumentative discourse (which is not circumventable in philosophy). The approach first deduces from these presuppositions only the ideal procedures for the moral discourses through which all concrete moral problems ought to be solved, if possible. The second step provides a strategic-counter-strategic supplementation principle for those cases where undistorted moral discourses are not possible. (shrink)

Le besoin d'une ethique globale a son origine dans la situation humaine comme telle (l'hominisation nous a en effet eloignes de la securite naturelle des instincts animaux et nous a jetes dans l'etat de liberte) et specialement dans la situation presente de l'humanite. Celle-ci se caracterise par un accroissement extreme des defis externes a notre co-responsabilite. Ces defis sont poses par les resultats de la science naturelle, de la technologie, de la politique et de l'economie tandis que semblent bien marquer (...) les ressources internes de la raison ethique. Le present livre tente de montrer que l'approche pragmatico-transcendantale de l'ethique de la discussion est en mesure de reconstruire la genese de cette situation et de fournir une reponse rationnelle tant aux defis externes qu'aux defis internes auxquels une ethique globale est confrontee. (shrink)

The author reviews recent books by Alasdair MacIntyre and Garrett Barden that critique the impulse to foundational theory and transhistorical argumentation in moral theory; these arguments are then set in relation to books by Franklin Gamwell and Karl-Otto Apel that seek, in new ways, to defend that impulse. Although far more sympathetic to the latter perspective, the author maintains that all four of these second-order theoretical discussions lack an appropriate understanding of and engagement with the post-Enlightenment tradition of (...) moral theorizing. (shrink)

As the title of my paper indicates, I wish to establish a relationship between the problem of an adequate explication of the truth-conception that underlies modern empirical science and the philosophy of C. S. Peirce who is often called the founder of American Pragmatism. In speaking of the truth-conception of modern empirical science, I am thinking of a conception of truth that is necessarily presupposed for an adequate epistemological and methodological understanding of experimental and theoretical natural science and, indeed, for (...) such types of quasi-nomological social science as can be practiced according to the paradigm of natural science. This means that I do not propose directly to thematize the truth-problematics of so called “hermeneutic Geisteswissenschaften” or “critical-reconstructive social sciences” which, in my opinion, transcend the truth-conception as well as the very concept of science. (shrink)

Con la finalidad de responder positivamente a la pregunta planteada en eltítulo de este trabajo, el autor presenta y cuestiona, en primer Jugar, el supuesto filosófico tradicional, por el que se hace depender al lenguaje unilateralmente de la intenciones moralmente relevantes de los individuos. Expone luego las estaciones del fracaso de los intentos de fundamentación moral sobre la base del solipsismo metódico de la filosofía moderna antes del giro pragmático- lingüístico. Y defiende finalmente la posición de la fundamentación pragmático-trascendental última (...) frente a las interpretaciones relativistas del mencionado giro de la filosofía contemporánea. (shrink)

Enrique Dussel's writings span the theology of liberation, critiques of discourse ethics, evaluations of Marx, Levinas, Habermas, and others, but most importantly, the development of a philosophy written from the underside of Eurocentric modernist teleologies, an ethics of the impoverished, and the articulation of a unique Latin American theoretical perspective. This anthology of original articles by U.S. philosophers elucidating Dussel's thought, offers critical analyses from a variety of perspectives, including feminist ones. Also included is an essay by Dussel that responds (...) to these essays. (shrink)

Accused of the murder of two men and the rape and murder of a Tombstone businessman's fiancâee, Matt Donohue must find the girl in the middle of Apache territory in order to clear his name.

The explanation versus understanding debate was important to the philosophy of thesocial sciences from the time of Dilthey and Weber through the work of Popper and Hempel.

L’article est une prise de position critique à propos du livre de Habermas Faktizität und Geltung . Plus précisément, il s’agit d’une critique de l’ « architectonique” de la différenciation discussionnelle, menée à propos du rapport entre principe de discussion, principe moral, principe du droit et principe démocratique. Mon point de vue résulte de la position de l’éthique de la discussion comme discipline de base de la philosophie pratique, dans la perspective d’une fondation pragmatique-transcendantale ultime. Une « architectonique » alternative (...) de la différenciation discussionnelle du point de vue de l’éthique de la discussion est proposée.The following essay takes a critical stand to Habermas’ book Faktizität und Geltung of 1992 ; more precisely expressed : my stance is critical with regard to Habermas’ new « architectonics » of discourse-differentiation concerning the relationship between « discourse-principle », « principle of morality », « principle of law », and « principle of democracy ». My critique represents the view of a « transcendentalpragmatic ultimate foundation of discourse-ethics » . An alternative « architectonics » of discourse differentiation in the sense of discourse-ethics is suggested. (shrink)