INTRODUCTION

Habermas's argument exhibits some striking par­allels with the one that

Socrates develops in the Phaedrus .... just as Habermas's line of argument

leads him to recog­nize the reciprocal relation between ideal speech ... and

an ideal form of life, so the primary practical problem for Socrates becomes

one of constructing or reconstruct­ing a polis in which such ideal speech

can be real­ized.

Richard J. Bernstein, Restructuring, 1976

            Though Jürgen Habermas does not develop the metaphysical themes latent in his own work, in ar­ticulating a model of communicating subjects for the exercise of the human eman­cipatory potential, he opens a space within the context of contemporary discourse which points to­ward the further reaches of his own philo­sophical compass, i.e., toward metaphys­ical reflection, in a manner that mutually enriches both Haber­mas's proposals and traditional metaphysi­cal notions. This study will accordingly argue that Habermas's philoso­phy of eman­cipation may be viewed as a new optic for elaborating the notion of being as es­se. Conversely, it will also indicate the manner in which metaphysics may be viewed as pro­viding Habermas's emancipative/com­municative model with an existentialist context that serves to mitigate the for­malism with which his own model is affected.[i]

            This proposed analysis of the relationship between Habermas's philosophy of emancipation and classical metaphysics will consider a number of philosophically significant issues. For one, it will attempt to deal critically with the issue of the lim­its of philosophical formalism as instantiated in Habermas's emancipatory/ communicative model. This study will also treat the issue of the distinction of the physical sciences from the human sciences within a non-reductionist, i.e., non-physicalist framework. Such a clarification is fundamental to this study's attempt to indicate the sense in which the notion of esse comes to be enriched when viewed from the perspective of Habermas's communica­tive proposal. Still another issue centers on the concep­tion of transcen­dent ground that may be derived when considering the notion of being as unum from Habermas's dialogical paradigm versus the traditional mono­lo­gical framework. In addition to considering these issues, this study provides an introductory exposition of Habermas's major theories, viz., cognitive interests, universal pragmatics and discourse ethics, and reviews the fundamental features of the classical model of existential metaphysics.

            This said, the first chapter endeavors to pro­vide the needed con­text within the topology of the postmodernist view of Reason for situat­ing Habermas's alternative, theoretical proposal and for further clarifying the intended contribution of this study. The second chapter examines the master lines of Habermas's theory of cognitive interests with a view toward distinguishing the various sciences in function of their object, method and constitutive "interest," an examina­tion which provides the requi­site setting for arguing in favor of the primacy of the emancipatory interest that emerges as a distinc­tive property of communicating subjects. This involves addressing the manner in which both the technical interest of the empirical-analytic sciences and the practical interest of the historical-herme­neutic sciences may be understood as proceeding in function of the emancipatory interest of the critical sciences. The next two chapters concentrate on articulating the communicative dimension of communitary beings. Accordingly, the third chapter develops the master lines of Haber­mas's theory of universal pragmatics as represent­ing his methodological framework for emancipa­tory critique. However, this chapter restricts itself to a consideration of the question of the adequacy of Habermas's discourse theory of truth insofar as a logic of theoretical discourse is con­cerned. The fourth chapter then reviews Habermas's discourse ethics with the aim of consid­er­ing the question of the adequacy of his principle of uni­ver­saliza­tion insofar as a logic of practical discourse is concerned. Once the significant ele­ments of Haber­mas's philosophy of emancipation have been critically considered, the fifth chapter pursues the sense in which Habermas's contribution points beyond itself, viz., toward meta­physical re­flection in a manner having crucial consequences for both the traditional notion of esse and for Habermas's own communicative model. This will be followed by closing remarks which will bring this study to a conclusion.

            The division of chapters is thus as follows: (I) The Objectivist/Relativist Dichotomy: The Habermasian Alternative; (II) The Theory of Cognitive Interests: Primacy of the Emancipatory Interest; (III) The Theo­ry of Universal Pragmatics: The Methodological Framework; (IV) The Limits of Discourse Ethics: A Model of Communicating Sub­jects; and (V) Habermas's Philosophy of Emancipation and Meta­phys­ics.[ii]

Robert P. Badillo, Ph.D.