Transzendentalpragmatik und Diskursethik. Elemente und Perspektiven der Apelschen Diskursphilosophie

Transcendental Pragmatics and Discourse Ethics. Elements and Perspectives of Apel's Discourse-Philosophy. The author follows Apel's intellectual biography and shows the conception of a critique of meaning qua ‘reflection upon the discourse within the discourse’ to be the centre of Apel's language-pragmatic ‘Transformation of Philosophy’ (Frankfurt a.M. 1973). Beginning with an explication of the situation of a speaker/thinker, especially of the situation of a philosophising speaker/thinker, Apel reconstructs a two fold apriori of communication: Every thought is situated within the context of a particular, historically evolved, community of language and interaction. At the same time, however, the validity-claims of thoughts transcend the context of their origin towards an unlimited community of argumentation. On the basis of the first apriori Apel criticises the methodical solipsism as well as the objectivism of modern philosophy and theory of science. Drawing upon the second apriori he develops a universalist critique of meaning of relativism and contextualism. In the sixties and seventies Apel worked out a differentiated theory of the – more or less – communicatively cognizing humanities and set it apart from the theory of the causal-explanatory natural sciences, thus challenging the objectivism of a Theory of Unified Science. Building upon this work Transcendental Pragmatics, as developed by Apel and others, sets philosophy primarily two tasks: firstly, a (fallible) internal reconstruction of argumentative discourse as the (logical) situation of speech and thought which seeks to elucidate the conditions of the meaningfulness, i. e. the presuppositions, of discourse. These presuppositions comprise, thus Apel with Habermas, the four validity-claims to intelligibility, sincerety/credibility, truth and normative rightness/legitimacy. Their moral content consists, thus Apel, not only in the recognition of the equality of all beings capable of discursive reasoning but also in their recognition of a co-responsibility for the realizability of discourses and of responsibility. The author argues that the existence of a co-responsibility of this kind is indisputable because the discursive claims to validity are intertwined with a set of ‘primordial promises of dialogue’. Only with the elucidation and explication of these promises can the reconstruction of the internal conditions of discourse be completed.The second task of a pragmatics of argumentation isthe strict resp. actual reflection of the thinker upon the presuppositions of the discourse in which he currently engages. This reflection has a Socratic character and can only be done in the form of discussion and debate (‘Auseinandersetzungen’, Apel, Frankfurt a.M. 1998) with critics of the reconstruction. In this context, the author proposes a method of Socratic reflection upon the presuppositions of dialogue which suspends the usual, theoretically oriented, attitude of the scientist and the philosopher in favour of an actual reflective attitude. Within a dialogue with a sceptic who doubts one of the results of the internal reconstruction of dialogical presuppositions, say X, it is tested whether his doubt as to the unrestricted validity of X can be understood as a sincere contribution to the current dialogue or whether this particular sceptical thesis does not make sense, because it is incompatible with the role of a sincere participant of argumentation which, after all, the sceptic cannot refuse to claim for himself.Finally the author explains Apel's characterization of the tension between “Discourse and Responsibility” (Frankfurt a.M. 1988). In the course of discussions with Max Weber, Lawrence Kohlberg, Hans Jonas et al., Apel formulates and justifies an ethics of responsibility and gives an affirmative answer to the crucial question of whether the fulfilment of the moral obligations connected with the recognition of co-responsibility can be demanded within the non-dialogical circumstances of social reality. Apel's answer employs the idea of counter-strategies which are morally legitimate in virtue of their being worthy of argumentative consensus. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Zur Geschichte und aktuellen Situation der Ethik in der Sowjetunion

Developments in Soviet ethics have been largely, but not exclusively, determined by the official ideology. Since 1917 philosophers have debated four successive models of morality. In the first, morality was regarded as tool of the exploiting classes and thus was superseded by communism. This attitude in fact fostered moral nihilism and anarchism. In the second period of ethical reflection, morality was contrued as a social, class-relative, phenomenon, conceived in utilitarian terms. With respect to Communist morality whatever serves socialism as defined by the Communist Party acquires the force of a moral imperative. It is important to understand whether this perspective is true to Marx's views. Whereas classical ethics assumed an extraworldy foundation for morality Marx adopted the humanist, immanentist perspective, according to which morality has a pragmatic sense as an ideal, the goal of activity. Soviet ethical theory of the Stalin era did not deviate from this perspective, for which reason ethics as a professional science was entirely subordinated to Party decrees about socialism as an ideal. In the third period beginning in the mid-fifties, a new view came to the fore which was codified in the 1961 Party program: moral values are now regarded as having a specific quality, social development involves a moral dimension, and moral values exhibit an all-human import. During this period the leading issue among philosophers is the question of the essence and specificity of morality as distinct from other forms of social consciousness. Just prior to the era of perestrojka beginning in 1985 a fourth model emerged which in fact prepared in most essential respects the actual new thinking in morality. The matters under consideration had to do with the global dimensions of moral problems given the common experience and fears of humanity. For this reason morality was now seen as superseding politics. Presently, this reorientation has not only enabled abandoning attitudes favoring class morality, but thrown into relief the tragic consequences of this attitude within Soviet history.The new image of morality corresponds to abstract humanism with its stress on the person and universal values. The task before Soviet ethicians is to provide theoretical and methodological foundations for their research by which they can improve the professional quality of their work and provide the discipline with a new identity over and against Marxism.     

Goethes und Schopenhauers Stellung in der Geschichte der Lehre von den Gesichtsempfindungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Geschichte der Psychotherapierichtlinien

This article gives a historic overview of the 40 years of development of the Psychotherapy Guidelines of the National Committee of Social Health and Insurance (SHI) Physicians and Sickness Funds. Further some ?myths“ of psychotherapy are corrected. Finally, a short outlook on future perspectives is given.     

Das Kategoriensystem des Dialektischen Materialismus: Argumente und Perspektiven

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Das Individuum als Opeferlamm auf dem Altar der Geschichte

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Neue soziometrische Perspektiven

Zusammenfassung Die Hypothese, daß ein Zusammenhang besteht zwischen dem soziometrischen Wahlverhalten und einem oder mehreren Faktoren der Trias Valenz, Potenz und Erregung, konnte korrelationsstatistisch bestätigt werden. Es zeigte sich, daß die typischen soziometrischen Wahlfragen weitgehend einfaktoriell — valenzkorreliert — sind. Daneben spielt aber für bestimmte Fragen (z.B. Führerwahl) auch die Potenzdimension eine entscheidende Rolle. Die 21 in diesem Versuch verwendeten Kriterium-Fragen, unter denen sich auch soziale Meinungs-, Einstellungs- und Personwahrnehmungsfragen befanden, zeigten mit ihren Valenz-Potenz-Korrelationen eine gemeinsame funktionale Bezugsgrundlage.Das Eindrucksdifferential erwies sich als geeignetes Instrument, eine soziale Gruppe und ihre Angehörigen hinsichtlich ihrer Eigenschaften als Objekte und Subjekte sozialer Beziehungen zu kennzeichnen. Die Daten des Eindrucksdifferentials lassen eine objektive Strukturanalyse der Gruppe mit Hilfe der D-Faktormethode zu. Die Vorzüge der Methode sind zahlreich, so daß man gern bereit sein wird, ihre wenigen Nachteile (vor allem zeitlichen Aufwand) mit in Kauf zu nehmen, wenn es die Umstände erlauben. Die klassische soziometrische Methode der Vorzugswahlen wird jedoch bei jüngeren Kindern nicht durch die Differentialmethode zu ersetzen sein.

---

Summary The hypothesis that sociometric choice behavior is intimately related to one or several factors of the factorial trias Valenz (evaluation), Potenz (potency) und Erregung (activity) was supported by this correlational study. It has been shown that the standard sociometric questions are correlated with Valenz. Certain other questions (leader choice questions e.g.) are further correlated with Potenz. Most of the 21 questions of a criterion questionnaire applied in this study, among them opinion, attitude and person perception items, proved to have a common functional frame of reference defined by the Valenz and Potenz coordinates.The differential method was shown to be a suitable instrument to analyze small groups and their members in terms of their intragroup relations. The data obtained by this method permit an objective subgroup analysis by the D-method of factorization. Unfortunately the procedure of differential scaling is more time consuming. But the advantages are numerous and prevail over the disadvantages. The classical sociometric test might remain the only applicable method in studies with younger children.

     

Carnap und der Physikalismus

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Heidegger und der Tod

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Husserl und der Buddhismus

In Husserls Auseinandersetzung mit dem Buddhismus in der Rezension ,,Über die Reden Gotamo Buddhas“ (1925) sowie in dem Manuskript ,,Sokrates-Buddha“ (1926) lassen sich wesentliche Eigenarten feststellen, die ihn von anderen wichtigen abendländischen Denkern der Gegenwart unterscheiden. Zwar verfügte Husserl sicher über eine eingeschränkte Kenntnis des Buddhismus und steht in dieser Hinsicht wahrscheinlich hinter Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson, Russell, Jaspers, Heidegger und Scheler zurück, welche dem orientalischen Denken durchaus näher stehen. Dennoch zeugt Husserls Bemühen umso mehr von einer respektvollen Haltung gegenüber dem buddhistischen Denken, als seine Untersuchung frei vom Hochmut der wissenschaftlichen Vernunft bleibt und ganz von dem echten Willen zu einem besseren Verständnis der fremden Tradition getragen ist.     

Aktuelle Entwicklungen in der Psychotherapieausbildung und der Ausbildungsforschung

In the journal Psychotherapeut, issues of psychotherapy training have been repeatedly published during recent years, especially related to discussions about a reform of the current training system. This reform now seems to have been initiated. Besides a historical sketch of the training-related discourse of recent years and a proposal for defining core fields of competence of psychotherapists, this paper summarizes current trends in training research, which seem to be gaining importance within psychotherapy research.