Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

PrefaceIn Germany the philosophy of law has long ceased to be a matter ·just for philosophers. Ifl scarcely mention the name of Hegel andrely more on the Kantian theory oflaw, this also expresses my desireto avoid a model that set unattainable standards for us. Indeed, itis no accident that legal philosophy, in search of contact with socialreality, has migrated into the law schools.1 However, I also want toavoid the technical jurisprudence focused on the foundations ofcriminal law.2 What could once be coherently embraced in theconcepts of Hegelian philosophy now demands a pluralistic approachthat combines the perspectives of moral theory, socialtheory, legal theory, and the sociology and history of law.I welcome this as an occasion to display the often unrecognizedpluralistic approach of the theory of communicative action. Philosophicalconcepts no longer constitute an independent language,or at any rate not an encompassing system that assimilates everythinginto itself. Rather, they provide a means for the reconstructiveappropriation of scientific knowledge. Thanks to its multilingualcharacter, if philosophy simply keeps the basic concepts clear it canuncover a surprising degree of coherence at a metalevel. Hence,the basic assumptions of the theory of communicative action alsobranch out into various universes of discourse, where they mustprove their mettle in the contexts of debate they happen toencounter.The first chapter treats in rather cursory fashion a few aspects ofthe relation between facticity and validity that touch on the basicassumptions of the theory of communicative action. Naturally, this