批判与实践——新法兰克福学派对美国实用主义的兴趣

The New Frankfurt School's Interests in American Pragmatism

今年上半年访问过华东师大的德国哲学家尤根·哈贝马斯是所谓新法兰克福学派的主要代表。由于对理论与实践关系作了新的理解,该学派对美国实用主义哲学传统作了相当积极的评价,从而与以霍克海默尔为代表的批判理论第一代人物对后者的态度形成鲜明对照。在哈贝马斯那里,“批判”在规范内容和论证方式两个方面与以下四个层次上的“实践”密切联系:交往行动、合理论辩、公共讨论、政治文化。在这些从抽象到具体的层次上,哈贝马斯都对从皮尔士经过杜威一直到罗蒂的美国实用主义哲学家所提供的思想材料作了批判性借鉴。

Juergen Habermas, the German Philosopher who visited ECNU earlier this year, is the major figure of the so - called New Frankfurt School. As a result of a new understanding of the relation between theory and practice, this School, in sharp contrast to the first - generation Critical Theorists represented by Horkheimer, highly values the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism. To Habermas, the idea of 'critique' is, both substantially and methodologically, closely connected with the idea of 'praxis' in the following senses: communicative action, rational argumentation, public discussion and political culture. At all these levels, from more abstract to more concrete, Habermas critically appropriates important resources found in American pragmatists from Peirce through Dewey to Rorty.