Contemporary Critical Theory and Methodology

Pragmatism, Critical Theory and Business Ethics: Converging Lines

“…Dewey did not share Critical theory's inclination toward grand social meta-theorizing, against which he posited a more modest practice of ''fresh and unbiased'' inquiry into concrete social problems and their causes (Frega 2014;Bohman 2002;Strydom 2011). Further, Dewey did not share Critical theory's general distrust of the public capacity to identify and resolve ''pathologies of society,'' but instead proposed a joint liaison between intellectuals and the public in detecting and correcting societal problems (Decker 2012;Frega 2014;Joas 1992;Peters 1994).…”

“…As such, misrecognition and disrespect constitute a violation of moral claims and normative expectations persons and groups may have with regard to the three patterns of recognition. The negative and painful subjective ''lived'' experiences and emotions they undergo and the struggle for societal recognition they undertake as a result provide the normative core of Honneth's social critique (Anderson 2011;Outhwaite 2009;Strydom 2011).…”

“…An important role in this reconstruction was played by Peirce's ''universal pragmatics,'' which focuses on an intersubjectively founded validity of beliefs as both the process and outcome of inquiry. Unlike firstgeneration Critical theorists, Habermas no longer regarded the normative wrongness of rationalizing bureaucratic and capitalist forces as self-evident, but his ''theory of communicative action locates the potential for an anthropologically grounded reason… in the quintessentially human activity of reaching a linguistically mediated understanding'' (Ray 2004, p. 309;Strydom 2011). This potential enabled Habermas to focus on the specific conditions under which human communication could be free from domination (the ''ideal speech'' situation), while at the same time still critiquing the domination of instrumental rationality, found in the ''mediatization,'' ''instrumentalization'' and ''colonization'' of the ''life world'' by capitalist and bureaucratic ''systems'' (Anderson 2011;Joas 1993;Ray 2004).…”

“…This reversal is ethically problematic, because this particular expectation of individualism is not matched by appropriate material conditions ''that would allow a consistent realization of these new values. Instead, employees are compelled to feign initiative, flexibility, and talents in places where there are no roots for such values'' (Honneth 2007, p. 346;Islam 2012).The translation in fact involves a paradoxical reversal of self-realization, from a feature of personal identity development and growth into a institutionalized, efficiency enhancing expectation, used as a pretext for the deregulation, flexibilization and ''marketization'' of society, leading to symptoms of inner emptiness, lack of purpose, burnout and feelings of superfluity within employees (Honneth 2004b(Honneth , 2007(Honneth , 2010bPetersen and Willig 2004;Strydom 2011).…”

“…It remained for the leading third-generation Critical theorist Axel Honneth to more fully integrate Dewey's Pragmatism with Critical philosophy, including parts of Dewey's economic thinking (Anderson 2011;Frega 2015;Midtgarden 2012;Strydom 2011;Zurn 2015). Fundamental to Honneth's social philosophy is Hegel's conception of freedom as intersubjectively constituted through mutual recognition.…”