The Concept of Communicative Action Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Concept of Communicative Action - Essay Example Knowledge-Constitutive Interest - a function of the objectively constituted problems of the preservation of life that have been solved by the cultural form of existence. Cognitive Interest - the relationship or the conforming of motivation and cognition. Knowledge and interest are essentially united. technical interest natural science practical interest human science emancipatory interest critical theory The technical interest relates to the human need to control nature for survival. Labor fulfills this need. Modern science and cost-benefits rationally serve this interest. The practical interest is the interest in human communication, interaction and common life. The discipline of psychology and psychoanalysis is needed. Emancipatory interest is the idea that knowledge must enhance man's freedom and improve human life by emancipating man from oppressive forces, be it in the field of politics, psychology, ideology, etc. The unit of knowledge and self-interest The achievements of the transcendental subject have their basis in the natural history of the human species. Knowledge equally serves as an instrument and transcends mere self-preservation Knowledge constitutive interests take the form in the medium of work, language and power. In the power of self-reflection, knowledge and interest are one. The unity of knowledge and interest proves itself in a dialectic that takes the historical trace of suppressed dialogue and reconstructs what has been suppressed. Approaches in the philosophy of Language The traditional way - it is characterized as interpreting language through the use of etymology, and understanding the application of language in a specific group The method of... Habermas focused his attention on epistemology, i.e. how knowledge is related to and affected by the interests of the knower. Habermas became critical of empiricism and positivism because of their assumptions and presuppositions deduced from practical interests in historical and social conditions. Habermas was influenced by Freud in trying to bring knowledge and interest into harmony through self-reflection. Decisionism - is a viewpoint concerning the irreducibility of categoral value judgments to scientific knowledge, hence not by scientific method, but the expressions of personal and arbitrary decisions. Thus, value judgments by themselves are purely subjectivistic. For Habermas, the above viewpoints of Weber are reductionist and limiting. Science (physical science) is not the only agency to have accurate and valid knowledge. There are limitations into it so with human sciences. Emancipatory interest is the idea that knowledge must enhance man's freedom and improve human life by emancipating man from oppressive forces, be it in the field of politics, psychology, ideology, etc. For Habermas, methodological scientific approach in the social sciences may end u