The Selfless Habermas

"... Jurgen Habermas has attempted to rescue the prospect of rationality as a meaningful human capability - lately devastated as a subject-oriented illusion of modernity - in a postmodern world by defining the playing fields in which rationality can survive: first, by presupposing a level playing field where objective truth is the possibility for consensus between willing subjects engaged in rational argument and who are not under the influence of any biasing power-structures, and second, an open playing field where subjective truthfulness and intersubjective rightness can co-determine social norms and all actors have open and equal access to the discourse. In effect, he is suggesting that in communicative acts there lies the inherent possibility of rational outcomes due to interacting validity claims from all "big 3" quadrants (I, We, and It) among multiple non-coerced, freely participating subjects. By combining a theory of epistemology (knowing) with a theory of ethics (right action) Habermas tries to outline a meta-system by which right action may be properly discerned above and beyond the postmodern chasm of pure relativism."

Good stuff by Robb Smith in "Causal Awareness as a True Pre-Condition to Habermas's Ideal Speech Act". Read on at his blog.