Postmetaphysical versus postmodern thinking : a critical appraisal of Habermas's debate with postmodernism

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Philosophy has traditionally been concerned with the question of reason andrationality, as its central focus. From the perspective of the modernmetaphysical tradition, this focus has developed around the theme ofsubjectivity in general, and the assumption of an ahistorical transcendentalsubject in particular. The idea of reason was thus foundational for thearticulation and validation of the notions of truth and freedom. From theperspective of modernity, reason has thus been the condition of the possibilityof enlightenment, freedom and moral progress.The debate between Habermas and the representatives of postmodern thinkingrepresents the latest chapter regarding the question of reason, its limits, and itspossibilities. What makes this debate particularly challenging is that Habermas,while he defends the idea of reason against its critique by the postmodernists,is actually in agreement with them in their dismissal of the tradition ofmetaphysical thinking.In view of his defense of the idea of reason, however, Habermas has invariablybeen accused of defending an outmoded and discredited form of philosophicalthinking, while his opponents have generally been hailed as progressivethinkers who have succeeded in effecting a radical break with the conceptuallegacy of the metaphysical tradition.In my dissertation I argue that the exact opposite position is the case, namely,that it is Habermas, and not his postmodern opponents, who has effected aradical break with metaphysical thinking. It is his ability to transform the idea ofreason, from a transcendental into a postmetaphysical concept, in terms ofwhich the question of reason and rationality, and the related ideas of truth andknowledge, are recast in fallibilistic terms, that, in my view, represents theovercoming of metaphysics.The postmodern turn, on the other hand, in view of its reluctance to consider thequestion of reason from an alternative model of rationality, finds itself stilltrapped within a form of transcendental thinking in which it seeks to enquire intothe (im)possibility of reason, in the absence of a transcendental subject.In the final analysis, I argue that it is postmetaphysical rather than postmodernthinking, that offers us a practical alternative to the problematic conception ofreason, bequeathed by the tradition of metaphysical thinking.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University