On the Pragmatics of Social Interaction

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by Jurgen Habermas,

Translated by Barbara Fultner

MIT Press

Due/Published March 2002, 216 pages, paper

ISBN 0262582139

New in paper (S02)

In 1971 Habermas delivered the Gauss Lectures atPrinceton University. These lectures, entitled "Reflectionson the Linguistic Foundation of Sociology," anticipate TheTheory of Communicative Action and offer an excellent introductionto it. They show why Habermas considers the linguistic turn in socialphilosophy to be necessary and contain the first formulation of formalpragmatics, including an important discussion of truth.

In theselectures and two additional essays, Habermas outlines an intersubjectiveapproach to social theory that takes the concepts of meaning andcommunication to be central. In doing so, he situates his projectrelative to other influential accounts of how meaning is constituted, inparticular those of Husserl, Sellars, and Wittgenstein. He examines the nature of social interaction and itsconnection to communication, developing a linguistic conception ofconvention and intentionality. He also offers an account of social andindividual pathologies using the concept of systematically distortedcommunication. Taken together, these analyses contribute significantlyto current debates in the philosophy of action and language.

Series: Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought