Critique as Practice and Experience. Dewey's Pragmatism und the Postanalytical Rehabilitation of Objectivity.

• Applicant: Dr. Jörg Volbers
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: from 2013 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 238607746

The present project draws on John Dewey's pragmatism in order to carry forward a central debate in the post-analytic philosophy of language (Brandom, McDowell). Its lead question concerns the problem of critique: How can thinking be entitled to continuous critical reflection and at the same time be understood as an essentially objective, world-directed activity? Contemporary philosophy of language has defended an ambitious position, which combines realism with the ideal of free and continuous critique. The present project argues that the post-analytic attempt to rehabilitate objectivity falls short due to an insufficient notion of experience. In situating objectivity and rational critique solely within the sphere of linguistic understanding, the post-analytic debate loses sight of those experiences which are not immediately understood and thus demand further articulatory and conceptual work. Dewey's philosophy offers a comprehensive alternative: It focuses on the question of how experiences can guide and irritate judgments, and how they may thus contribute to concept formation. This project investigates the possibilities and the consequences of such a enriched conceptualisation of experience, which aims to defend both the critical potential of reflection as well as its objective commitment to the world.In particular, this project addresses two topics wherein the tension between objectivity and critique comes to the fore: sense perception and the body. Both notions stand for an immediate relation to the objectively given material world which seems to escape the grasp of conceptual rationality. Post-analytic authors thus discuss how the conceptual nature of sense perception and bodily performances can be defended in order to keep them accessible to critical thinking. Dewey's approach offers a relevant alternative: Instead of arguing either for or against the "conceptual nature" of contentful experiences, Dewey concentrates on those situated practices of inquiry that establish judgment about the content of experience to begin with. Instead of disconnecting the conceptual sphere from the non-conceptual, these practices offer an integrative view in which conceptual and non-conceptual moments refer to and constitute each other reciprocally. The present project identifies the prevailing conceptions of sense perception and the body in Dewey's philosophy as well as in the post-analytic debate, and investigates whether they can fulfill the joint demand for critique and objectivity.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants