Auslegung: A journal of philosophy, volume 14, number 2 (summer, 1988) book review

Review of Andrew Buchwalter's "Observations on "The Spiritual Situation of the Age

Remarks on the Concept of Critique in Habermasian Thought

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of critique in Habermasian thought. Given that the concept of critique is a central theoretical category in the work of the Frankfurt School, it comes as a surprise that little in the way of a systematic account which sheds light on the multifaceted meanings of the concept of critique in Habermas’s oeuvre can be found in the literature. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring the various meanings that Habermas attributes to the concept of critique in 10 key thematic areas of his writings: (1) the public sphere, (2) knowledge, (3) language, (4) morality, (5) ethics, (6) evolution, (7) legitimation, (8) democracy, (9) religion, and (10) modernity. On the basis of a detailed analysis of Habermas’s multifaceted concerns with the nature and function of critique, the study seeks to demonstrate that the concept of critique can be considered not only as a constitutive element but also as a normative cornerstone of Habermasian thought. The paper draws to a close by reflecting on some of the limitations of Habermas’s conception of critique, arguing that in order to be truly critical in the Habermasian sense we need to turn the subject of critique into an object of critique

Habermas and Kierkegaard on post-traditional identity: A study in communicative and existential ethics

In this study on post-nationalist and post-traditional identity I address critically the multicultural audiences of Europe and the USA. I reflect on Habermas\u27s notions of constitutional patriotism and permanent democratic revolution, Kierkegaard\u27s requirements of self-appropriation and existential living, and Havel\u27s Levinasian dramatization of vertical identity in the Czechoslovak 1989 existential, \u27velvet\u27 revolution. Habermas asks what post-traditional life-form integrates socially Kierkegaard\u27s individual. Existential self-choice grounds ethical living and moral acting. Yet, Habermas finds existential beginnings monological, self-choice decisionistic, and inwardness untranslatable into modern value-spheres. First, I argue that these charges betray a distorted received view of Kierkegaard. Second, I search with Habermas for those validity-domains which integrated Kierkegaard\u27s individual. Third, I ask with Kierkegaard what existential model sustains individual and community. Fourth, I read a Kierkegaardian corrective into critical theory. This movement repeats the question: can we do for Kierkegaard what Habermas suggests, but in Kierkegaard\u27s mode? I oppose the received view of Kierkegaard and argue formally a strong corrective-thesis against Habermas\u27s formal theory with practical intent which defines the structure of practical discourse but forgets the requirements \u27how\u27 one inhabits an existential-temporal model of autonomy, communication, and the ideal: if the individual becomes autonomous through self-choice, then the \u27how\u27 of self-appropriating and of reduplicating one\u27s identity originates a life-form which allows one to act autonomously and to communicate ethically. This \u27how\u27 of existential pathos signifies the difficulty of beginnings and marks formally by immanently vertical transcendence Habermas\u27s formal translation of Kierkegaard into immanently horizontal transcendence towards the discursive other. I defend Habermas\u27s use of Kierkegaard to critique nationalism and fundamentalism but offer a corrective: in conjunction with Habermas\u27s reading of Hegel and Marx with Kantian means and of Kant through Mead\u27s pragmatism and Durkheim\u27s sociology of religion, I ask: what life-form is projected within the ideal of existentially communicating community? Habermas\u27s permanent democratic revolution cures destructive crises-trends; Kierkegaard affords a requirement of permanent existential revolution which allows for receptive and self-active, multicultural and radically egalitarian, non-patriarchal and non-authoritative identities

The influence of the expansion of the smart mobile phones on the insurance industry

Development in the area of smart mobile phones is still accelerating. The expansion of smart mobile phones will bring new challenges and tasks to almost all industry areas. One of them will be the insurance industry. The clients will ask for new insurance products according to their actual personal needs and surroundings that could be effect by using smart mobile phones. In this article we try to predict such business opportunities in the new kind of insurance products development and its application. We focus on both the business and the risk model because these changes will cause a massive movement in the way of premium calculation