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132Truth in narrative fictionPhilosophy and Social Criticism 40 (7): 629-643. 2014.Narrative fiction has the power to unsettle our deep-seated intuitions and expectations about what it means to live an ethically good life, and the kind of society that best facilitates this. Sometimes its disruptive power is disclosive, leading to an ethically significant shift in perception. I contend that the disruptive and disclosive powers of narrative fiction constitute a potential for ethical knowledge. I construe ethical knowledge as a learning process, oriented by a concern for truth, w…Read more
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10Philosophy and the Social Sciences: Reflections on a MeetingPhilosophy and Social Criticism 43 (3): 260-261. 2017.
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21Meaning and Truth in Habermas's PragmaticsEuropean Journal of Philosophy 9 (1): 1-23. 2001.The article examines Habermas’s formal‐pragmatic theory of meaning from the point of view of his attempt to defend a postmetaphysical yet context‐transcendent conception of validity. It considers his attempt to develop a pragmatic account of understanding utterances that emphasises the mediation of knowledge through socio‐cultural practices while simultaneously stressing that understanding has a cognitive dimension that is inherently context‐transcendent. It focuses on his recent “Janus‐faced” c…Read more
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40Privatization or pluralization?: Reflections on multiple jurisdictionsPhilosophy and Social Criticism 36 (3-4): 425-440. 2010.In a widely publicized lecture in 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, expressed his concern that the conception of law and democratic citizenship prevailing in England may lead to ghettoization. The problem, in his view, is that the bulk of the convictions and commitments that define a given citizen’s identity are seen as a matter of individual choice and relegated to the private realm. In diagnosing this problem, Williams tacitly distances himself from a privatizing view of demo…Read more
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17Translating truthPhilosophy and Social Criticism 37 (4): 479-491. 2011.The article considers the role of translation in encounters between religious citizens and secular citizens. It follows Habermas in holding that translations rearticulate religious contents in a way that facilitates learning. Since he underplays the complexities of translation, it takes some steps beyond Habermas towards developing a more adequate account. Its main thesis is that the required account of translation must keep sight of the question of truth. Focusing on inspirational stories of ex…Read more
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10Feminism and JusticeIn Joseph Dunne, Attracta Ingram, Frank Litton & Fergal O'Connor (eds.), Questioning Ireland: Debates in Political Philosophy and Public Policy, Institute of Public Administration. pp. 124. 2000.
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90A space of one’s own: autonomy, privacy, libertyPhilosophy and Social Criticism 25 (1): 22-53. 1999.The value of a negatively defined private space is defended as important for the development of personal autonomy. It is argued that negative liberty is problematic when split off from its connection with this ideal. An ethical interpretation of personal autonomy is proposed according to which a private space is one of autonomy's preconditions. This leads to a conceptualization of privacy that is fruitful in two respects: it permits an account of privacy laws that avoids certain pitfalls, and it…Read more
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33The Limits of Learning: Habermas' Social Theory and ReligionEuropean Journal of Philosophy 24 (3): 694-711. 2014.Habermas' view that contemporary philosophy and social theory can learn from religious traditions calls for closer consideration. He is correct to hold that religious traditions constitute a reservoir of potentially important meanings that can be critically appropriated without emptying them of their motivating and inspirational power. However, contrary to what he implies, his theory allows for learning from religion only to a very limited degree. This is due to two core elements of his conceptu…Read more
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37Re-Presenting the Good SocietyMIT Press. 2006.Contemporary critical social theories face the question of how to justify the ideas of the good society that guide their critical analyses. Traditionally, these more or less determinate ideas of the good society were held to be independent of their specific sociocultural context and historical epoch. Today, such a concept of context-transcending validity is not easy to defend; the "linguistic turn" of Western philosophy signals the widespread acceptance of the view that ideas of knowledge and va…Read more
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65Meaning and truth in Habermas's pragmaticsEuropean Journal of Philosophy 9 (1). 2001.The article examines Habermas’s formal‐pragmatic theory of meaning from the point of view of his attempt to defend a postmetaphysical yet context‐transcendent conception of validity. It considers his attempt to develop a pragmatic account of understanding utterances that emphasises the mediation of knowledge through socio‐cultural practices while simultaneously stressing that understanding has a cognitive dimension that is inherently context‐transcendent. It focuses on his recent “Janus‐faced” c…Read more
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93Civil disobedience and conscientious objectionPhilosophy and Social Criticism 42 (10): 953-957. 2016.The question of civil disobedience has preoccupied philosophical discourse at least since Thoreau's articulation of disobedience as a form of non-compliance and Rawls' classic definition outlined in the wake of the civil rights and student protest movements of the 1960s. It has become increasingly clear, however, that these classic definitions are being challenged and rethought from a variety of traditions in the wake of contemporary protests. These articles engage with the most recent debates s…Read more
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113Avoiding authoritarianism: On the problem of justification in contemporary critical social theoryInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 13 (3). 2005.Critical social theories look critically at the ways in which particular social arrangements hinder human flourishing, with a view to bringing about social change for the better. In this they are guided by the idea of a good society in which the identified social impediments to human flourishing would once and for all have been removed. The question of how these guiding ideas of the good life can be justified as valid across socio-cultural contexts and historical epochs is the most fundamental d…Read more
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144Salvaging and secularizing the semantic contents of religion: the limitations of Habermas’s postmetaphysical proposalInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 60 (1-3): 187-207. 2006.The article considers Jürgen Habermas's views on the relationship between postmetaphysical philosophy and religion. It outlines Habermas's shift from his earlier, apparently dismissive attitude towards religion to his presently more receptive stance. This more receptive stance is evident in his recent emphasis on critical engagement with the semantic contents of religion and may be characterized by two interrelated theses: the view that religious contributions should be included in political del…Read more
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8Postkonventionelle Selbst Verwirklichung: Überlegungen zur praktischen SubjektivitätDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 42 (1): 61-72. 1994.
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7Habermas, feminism and the question of autonomyIn Peter Dews (ed.), Habermas: a critical reader, Blackwell. pp. 178--210. 1999.
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31The Weaknesses of Strong IntersubjectivismEuropean Journal of Political Theory 2 (3): 281-305. 2003.The article deals with Habermas's intersubjective approach to critical social theory, focusing on his intersubjective accounts of truth, justice and democratic legitimacy. Distinguishing between stronger and weaker versions of an intersubjective account, it draws attention to Habermas's recent move from a strong intersubjective, constructivist, interpretation of truth to a weaker, non-constructivist, one. It then looks at his refusal to make a similar move in the case of justice, arguing that it…Read more
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64Resurrecting the Rationality of Ideology Critique: Reflections on Laclau on IdeologyConstellations 13 (1): 4-20. 2006.
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Martin Beck Matustik, Jurgen Habermas. A Philosophical-Political Profile Reviewed byPhilosophy in Review 22 (5): 338-340. 2002.
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40Civil obedience and disobediencePhilosophy and Social Criticism 42 (10): 995-1003. 2016.This article offers a general framework for thinking about civil disobedience as transformative political action. Positing authority as the mode of power corresponding to obedience, and authority and freedom as internally related, it proposes a model of freedom and political authority as a basis for this framework. The framework is sufficiently general to allow for context-dependent variations – for example, as to whether publicity or non-violence is required – while specifying a view of civil d…Read more
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45Books briefly notedInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 2 (2). 1994.Essays on Philosophy and Economic Methodology By Daniel M. Hausman Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. 259. ISBN 0?521?41740?6. £35.00. Le Fondement de la morale: Essai d'éthiquephilosophique By André Léonard Cerf, 1991. Pp. 381. ISBN not available. FF240. The Philosophy of Time Edited By Robin Le Poidevin and Murray MacBeath Oxford University Press, 1993. Pp. 230. ISBN 0?19?823998?X. £27.50. The Ethics and Politics of Human Experimentation By Paul M. McNeill Cambridge University Press, 1993. …Read more
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47Argumentation and TransformationArgumentation 16 (1): 81-110. 2002.I consider argumentation from the point of view of context-transcendent cognitive transformation through reference to the critical social theory of Jürgen Habermas. My aim is threefold. First, to make the case for a concept of context-transcendent cognitive transformation. Second, to clarify the transformatory role of argumentation itself by showing that, while argumentation may contribute constructively to context-transcendent cognitive transformation, such transformation presupposes the exist…Read more
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43Socio-cultural learning as a 'transcendental fact': Habermas's postmetaphysical perspectiveInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 9 (1). 2001.This Article does not have an abstract
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4Questioning autonomy: The feminist challenge and the challenge for feminismIn Richard Kearney & Mark Dooley (eds.), Questioning Ethics: Contemporary Debates in Philosophy, Routledge. pp. 258--282. 1999.
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3Habermas' social theory : the critical power of communicative rationalityIn Ruth Sonderegger & Karin de Boer (eds.), Conceptions of Critique in Modern and Contemporary Philosophy, Palgrave-macmillan. 2011.
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69Between 'objectivism' and 'contextualism': The normative foundations of social philosophyCritical Horizons 1 (2): 193-227. 2000.One of the principal challenges facing contemporary social philosophy is how to find foundations that are normatively robust yet congruent with its self-understanding. Social philosophy is a critical project within modernity, an interpretative horizon that stresses the influences of history and context on knowledge and experience. However, if it is to engage in intercultural dialogue and normatively robust social critique,social philosophy requires non-arbitrary,universal normative standards.The…Read more