Talk:The Theory of Communicative Action

This summary was widely checked out in the process of writing my thesis at the Royal College of Art, London - doctoral thesis (2002) 'Exploding Cinema 1992 - 1999, culture and democracy' by Stefan Szczelkun. Copy available in the RCA library and from the British Library. Abridged for Wikipedia by the author. Full text online.

It may seem long for a Wikipedia entry but I argue that the two volumes of TCA are also very long and densely argued and it is impossible to do justice to this work and be very brief. My summary does leave out many parts of Habermas argument especially with the tradition of Sociology. But hopefully the key arguments are rendered faithfully for common edification. Szczels (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 11:20, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

On just rereading the entry it seems of utmost relevance to the operation of Wikipedia itself - and this hsould be a further reason for retaining a longer summary of TCA.

What is probably needed in addition is an up-to-date literature review of the main discussions of TCA. Many discussants of TCA seem not to have read volume 2! which has led to impoverished reactions to this theory. Szczels (talk) 11:33, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Adhering to Wikipedia policy

Szczels, this is a fine beginning. I have Wikified and copy edited the first half.

Be sure to study the policies of Wikipedia. In particular, Wikipedia is not a forum for publishing one's own research. Any statements in a summary of a book must be based on the book itself or *other* people's textual criticisms.

Wikipedia must have a philosophy project among its Projects. One can take guidance from it and also participate in it. Hurmata (talk) 04:37, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

I thought I had cut the parts that were 'my research' in creating this abridged version for Wikipedia... or do you mean having an opinion about the status of TCA? Please be specific. I will look for citations at the places you indicate.

I probably could make a summary of others textual criticisms of TCA, at least up to around year 2000. Szczels (talk) 14:33, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Summary of Critical Responses to TCA

an invitation to contribute! Foucault could be seen to challenge the use of Ideal Speech Situation. Foucault's criticism is that Habermas's use of the Ideal Speech Situation is utopian in suggesting that communication could ever be free from relations of power.

"The thought that there could be a state of communication which would be such that the games of truth could circulate freely, without obstacles, without constraint and without coercive effects, seems to me to be Utopia." (Foucault 1988 p18) James Tully comes to Habersmas' defence here:

"It is not utopian but a strongly idealised regulative idea against which actual games inundated by relations of power can be evaluated in the name of freedom." Tully in (Ashenden & Owen 1999 p130)

In fact Foucault himself can also be found to insist on ideal conditions for the freedom of subjects:

"Power is exercised only over free subjects, and only in so far as they are free. By this we mean individual or collective subjects who are faced with a field of possibilities in which several ways of behaving, several reactions and diverse comportments may be realised." (Foucault in Dreyfus & Rabinow 1983 p221)

Associated works

James Suroweicki's The Wisdom of Crowds (2004) has an interesting resonance with TCA Jonathan Schell's The Unconquerable World takes a much more practical and political approach without ever mentioning Habermas but the books are surely of parallel concerns.