The Self and Communicative Theory

by Gregory Heath

This title was first published in 2000: This text contributes to the development of communicative theory by advancing a theory of the self-sufficient to support intersubjectivity and meet the conditions required for communicative rationality and communicative reason. The conclusion supports theories advanced by Habermas, Apel and Wittgenstein, evaluated against the background of later works from Immanuel Kant. The origins of communicative theory in the writings of Kant and Charles Sanders Peirce are sketched, followed by an outline of the development of the theory by Apel and Habermas. In this discussion a central issues is identified as the failure of communicative theory to produce an adequate theory of the self as the subject of communicative transactions. It is argued that both Mead and Habermas fail to fully establish intersubjectivity as they retain elements of a Cartesian introspective subjectivity. An alternative approach, developed by Charles Taylor, is then discussed. Finally, it is argued that freedom and imagination, understood in the context of Kant and the late Wittgenstein are the key elements to a self capable of supporting the intersubjectivity required by communicative theory.

190 pages, Hardcover

Published December 13, 2017

About the author

I am a British writer from a little town called Melbourne, in Derbyshire, England. My poems and short stories appear regularly in literary magazines and I have published two novels.

My work often involves characters who struggle to communicate with the people around them, and this idea forms the basis of my first novel, 'The Entire Animal', which was published in 2006 by The Waywiser Press.

My second novel, 'Thoughts of Maria', published in 2013 by Open Books, continues this theme, but also touches on wider issues such as drugs, arranged marriages and sexual obsession.

My website can be found at gregoryheath.weebly.com