The Frankfurt School and pragmatism

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K12781
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 01010:Philosophy and ethics-related
• Research Institution: Hosei University
• Principal Investigator: Ueda Tomoo 法政大学, 法学部, 教授 (80816893)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: ハーバマス / プラグマティズム / カント主義 / 真理論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research is about Habermas's theoretical works, especially his Kantian pragmatics. The core of his theoretical framework consists of the consensus theory of truth, which has been substantially modified in the 1990s based on discussions with pragmatists in the United States. This version of the consensus theory of truth was the focus of the research.
From analyses of the consensus theoretic notion of truth, some provisional results came out. First, Habermas's recent discussions on religion was interpreted as a genealogical research project and as such, as a significant part of meta-discourse. Second, the transcendental question that qualifies Habermas's pragmatism as Kantian, is characterized. Finally, the relationship between descriptive truth and normative rightness was sketched.
Based on these achievements, I could publish three papers in English and Japanese.

Free Research Field

哲学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

この研究は、ハーバマスの理論的なプラグマティズムについての研究を、彼の社会哲学や政治論（特に彼の民主主義論）と接続させようとするものであるが、とりわけ1990年代以降の彼の理論の展開と近年の宗教論を統一的に理解する端緒を与えようとする点に最も重要な学術意義があると考えられる。ハーバマスの理論的研究は、ドイツ語圏を超えてアメリカのプラグマティストたちにも盛んに検討されている。本研究は、ハーバマスの近年の議論が持つ言語圏を超えた研究の射程を明らかにする試みの一端でもある。
社会的には、価値についての多元的社会における民主主義にあり方についての理論的理解に資する可能性がある点が重要であろう。