Social cognition subject problem in the context of the communicative turn

In contemporary philosophy subjectivity and intentionality are no longer considered as somethingprimary, but they are presented as a function of life forms and language systems. In the theory of knowledge the adopted position is thatall our knowledge is essentially due to history and culture. These changes in otology and theory of knowledge led to the emergence of anew type of social theory, which is called contemporary critical theory. One of the main problems contemporary critical theory facescan be formulated in the form of the following question: Is the view of essential situationality of any thought consistent with the universalistclaims that are inherent in theory? The problem situation that we face in answering the question above is related to the fact that wecan no longer rely on the traditional model of an autonomous entity and appeal to the instance of transcendental subjectivity. And beforeanswering the question about the compatibility of the universalist claims of social theory with the notion of essential situationality ofthought, we must answer the following question: what comes in place of the Cartesian model of consciousness type in contemporaryphilosophy? In this paper we consider options, which contemporary communicative philosophy offers, for resolving the problem of thesubject. It seems to us that the conceptions of Hans-Georg Gadamers philosophical hermeneutics, Karl-Otto Apels transcendentalpragmatics and Jurgen Habermass universal pragmatics are most representative. In contemporary communicative philosophy a radicaltransformation of the concept of subject occurs. Subjectivity and thought are no longer the substance and the ultimate bases of cognitiveactivity. They derive from other, subjectless phenomena. In philosophical hermeneutics such a subjectless phenomenon is the languagetradition, in transcendental pragmatics - the communicative society, and in universal pragmatics - the living world. Despite their differences,the common in these phenomena is that they have linguistic and historical natures; they form a space of everyday experience, aswell. These changes have far-reaching implications in the understanding of nature and status of social cognition. From the perspective ofcontemporary communicative philosophy social cognition is not a kind of theoretical (meditative) activity, but a rather practical activity,which contributes to changing the social matter. Thus, in Gadamers philosophical hermeneutics an interpreter does not only reconstructthe sense of text but also translates this sense in modernity. In transcendental pragmatics the activity of a social scientist contributes tothe movement from the real communicative society to the ideal communicative society. In the formal pragmatics self-evidences of theliving world are translated into acts of communicative interaction.

Keywords

Authors

References