On the Pragmatics of Communication

TLDR

Habermas’s program in pragmatics serves as a theoretical foundation for his theory of communicative action and enriches philosophical debates on meaning, truth, rationality, and action, distinguishing itself from empirical pragmatics and is presented in an anthology of ten essays. The anthology aims to convey the overall purpose of Habermas’s formal pragmatics, which systematically reconstructs the intuitive linguistic knowledge of competent subjects in everyday communicative practices. Formal pragmatics systematically reconstructs the intuitive linguistic knowledge of competent subjects as it is employed in everyday communicative practices.

Abstract

edited by Maeve Cooke Jurgen Habermas's program in pragmatics fulfills two main functions. First, it serves as the theoretical underpinning for his theory of communicative action, a crucial element in his theory of society. Second, it contributes to ongoing philosophical discussion of problems concerning meaning, truth, rationality, and action. By the pragmatic dimensions of language, Habermas means those pertaining specifically to the employment of sentences in utterances. He makes clear that formal is to be understood in a tolerant sense to refer to the rational reconstruction of general intuitions or competences. Formal pragmatics, then, aims at a systematic reconstruction of the intuitive linguistic knowledge of competent subjects as it is used in everyday communicative practices. His program may thus be distinguished from empirical pragmatics--for example, sociolinguistics--which looks primarily at particular situations of use.This anthology brings together for the first time, in revised or new translation, ten essays that present the main concerns of Habermas's program in pragmatics. Its aim is to convey a sense of the overall purpose of his linguistic investigations while introducing the reader to their specific details, in particular to his theories of meaning, truth, rationality, and action.