Theory Of Meaning In The Communicative Paradigm Of The Lifeworld

This thesis intends to further explore the meaning theory of Habermas` formal pragmatics in the communicative paradigm. Habermas` formal pragmatics as his meaning theory in the sense of communicative paradigm is based on his critical admission of the different theories of meaning prior to his communicative paradigm .This kind of theory of meaning critically draws upon the theories of meaning from different perspectives such as structuralism,behaviorism,empirical linguistics, traditions of both analytic philosophy and phenomenology, therefore it goes beyond those old approaches to the theories of meaning. In this thesis, we first go back to these rescourses of meaning theories related to Habermas`,and then come up with a detailed examination of his formal pragmatics in the communicative paradigm. We are convinced that Habermas` theory of meaning in the communicative paradigm—i.e.,the meaning theory of communicative formal pragmatics---is comparatively more complete than any of the previous ones and that this meaning theory, which is lifeworld-oriented and communicative rationality-dependent and thus deserves much concern, has not only touched upon the key questions of meaning theories, but also followed the turn of lifeworld in the present-day philosophy.The main body of this thesis consists of the following four parts:Ⅰ. The Theoretical Significance of Paradigm Shift in Meaning Theory and the Research Value of Formal PragmaticsMeaning and communication are closely related. The previous philosophers and linguists didn't formally introduce the communicative paradigm into meaning theory, though they ever referred to it. J. Habermas stepped out of the paradigm of subjective philosophy on the basis of criticizing and absorbing the theories of German classical philosophy of consciousness. The communicative paradigm he puts forward not only enriches and develops Marx's labor and communication concepts, but also realizes the return of meaning theory research to lifeworld communication. The shift of meaning theory to communicative paradigm has important theoretical significance, and indicates that the research of meaning theory has undergone a tremendous reform. Firstly, on the mode of thinking, the mode represented by the formal-pragmatic analysis symbolizes that the philosophical thinking mode shifts from epistemological one to that of modern communication;Secondly, on the methodology, the formal-pragmatic analysis is the integration of the comprehending method of hermeneutics and the scientific analytical method, which enlightens the research of meaning theory. Habermas'communicative formal-pragmatic analysis based on the lifeworld actually represents the paradigm of communication in meaning theory, which is his great contribution to the meaning theory of linguistic philosophy. Therefore, a further research on formal-pragmatic theory of meaning in communicative paradigm will definitely broaden the scope of research into the theory of meaning.Ⅱ. The Ideological Foundation and Major Theoretical Sources of Habermas'Formal PragmaticsThis chapter will further cast back the theoretical source and ideological foundation where Habermas's formal-pragmatic theory of meaning lies . Beginning with Kant`s transcendental theory, Habermas puts forward the theory of formal-pragmatic communicative competence based on Chomsky's linguistic competence theory. Chomsky claims that linguistic research should stress the linguistic competence, not the linguistic performance.Human-being possesses the linguistic competence to compose sentences through the grammatical rules with the help of the general innate grammatical structure as well as the long-term learning. Drawing upon Chomsky's linguistic competence theory, Habermas puts forward the theory of communicative competence , which mainly includes: (1) stating propositional sentences ; (2) expressing intentions and (3) performing the speech acts. In formal pragmatics,which provides the basis for the research theory of communicative action, the linguistic competence and the competence to perform speech acts are taken as the major abilities of human beings. Habermas not only accepts Saussure's distinction between langue and parole, but also takes such distinction as the foundation of his formal pragmatics, and therefore promotes the research of speech acts through overcoming one-sidedness of traditional linguistic philosophy . This research urges the academic circle to deepen the research from the understandability of language to that of speech act,and reminds people of the speech act with norm-related analyzability. Therefore, it leads to the theoretical research into the speech act,which was typically studied in an empirical way. It has been emphasized in Hamermas'formal pragmatics that the meaning of linguistic signs demonstrates the content of the lifeworld constructed by the communicative action. Habermas introduces the question of inter-subjective communicative meaning into the social lifeworld,a world with an inter-subjective interaction, and fulfills the linguistic rational communicative paradigm of meaning theory. This is also a tremendous breakthrough to the research paradigm of meaning theories of Saussure, Chomsky and other linguists. The introduction of communicative action to the meaning theory of formal pragmatics not only overcomes the restriction of Saussure and Chomsky, but also provides some initiating methods on the research of language meaning. Taking the above as the foundation, Habermas criticizes and absorbs the meaning theories of formal semantics and intentionalist pragmatics as well as Wittgenstein`s use theory.These theories are supposed to be the major theoretical sources of the meaning theory of communicative formal pragmatics.Ⅲ. The Construction of Habermas` Formal PragmaticsThe theory of Habermas` formal pragmatics is mainly concerned with the communicative action and the communicative competence. It starts from the properties of syntax and semantics, language context as well as the speaker's pragmatic features in reconstructing the universal validity claims of language communication. In order to meet the cognitive need of communicative action,Habermas proposes the double structure theory of speech act which focuses on the communicative meaning of speech act. This is an important contribution of his formal pragmatics to the study of meaning theory.The purpose of Habermas constructing formal pragmatics is to seek solutions to the problem of communication and understanding, to establish normal conducts of universal validity claims and thereby to reach consensus through speech communication and rational argument.The validity claims mainly include:the true of statements, the sincerity of expressions and the correctness of norms, etc.. When the acting subjects with linguistic competence and performance meet these claims, their communicative action obtains the basis for the language validity. This chapter explains in detail the main contents of Habermas` formal pragmatics and its related theoretical concepts, especially the relationships between speech acts and validity claims, the basis for speech validity, the theoretic foundation as well as the questions of understanding, consensus and argument, etc. in formal pragmatics.Ⅳ. Towards the Meaning Theory of Formal Pragmatics in the Lifeworld CommunicatonIt is an obvious trend that meaning theory will come into lifeworld. Seen from the development of Western philosophy of language,the fact that the theory of language meaning has shifted its focus from the artificial language meaning to the everyday language meaning has demonstrated that the study of meaning theory is more and more close to the human lifeworld. Husserl's theory of meaning, Heidegger's Dasein hermeneutics, Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics, Wittgenstein's later meaning theory of language use , Austin and Searle's speech act meaning theory and so on., indicate that the research of meaning theory is coming to the lifeworld. With the further development of language philosophy, the shift from artificial language to everyday language proposed by the later language philosophy marks that the theory of meaning has shaken off the shackles of logical positivism and turned its attention to the lifeworld meaning theory of language philosophy.The meaning theory of communicative formal pragmatics proposed by Habermas is accomplished in the lifeworld communicative paradigm, so this meaning theory can fully reflect the foundational status of the lifeworld. Communicative formal pragmatics must be supported by communicative rationality, while communicative rationality comes from the lifeworld. The lifeworld is a fundamental concept of contemporary western philosophy. From the perspective of the developmental history in western philosophy,the lifeworld has great significance of paradigm shift. The linguistic turn marks the theme shift of western philosophy and the reform of research method. This shift makes Habermas realize that , on one hand, it will cut the bond between speech acts and other acts to do the research of speech acts in an isolated way ;on the other hand, action and subjective consciousness might be subjectively connected ,as a result, the problem of epistemology can not be properly solved. Inspired by the linguistic turn ,Habermas accomplishes the shift to communicative paradigm after his firm decision to break with philosophy of consciousness. In the communicative paradigm, the life-world, as the premise of communicative action, is the background prerequisite of acting subjects conducting communicative action, it is also the belief reservoir in which they understand each other;while as the result of communicative action, the lifeworld is formed in human communicative practice, and reproduced by communicative action through cultural reproduction, social integration and individual socialization. Hence the lifeworld and communicative action are inseparable from each other, they interact as both cause and effect. In everyday communication,the lifeworld, as unthematized knowledge, is always in the central position.In Post-metaphysical Thinking, Habermas differentiates the knowledge of vision relevant to situation and the thematized context knowledge from the background knowledge of the lifeworld. He points out that the background knowledge of the lifeworld ,as a kind of deep-seated unthematized knowledge with different conditions of expression, can not be displayed through intentionality, it forms the basis of surface knowledge of vision and context knoweldge. Therefore, if the speakers and hearers can understand each other with regard to the things in the world ,the validity claims of speech acts and their persuasive power must be based on the great amount of unthematized knowledge which is inter-subjectively shared by the participants. In other words, validity claims of speech acts and their persuasive power are based on the background knowledge of the lifeworld. From Habermas'perspective, the lifeworld has never been one dimensional, but intertwined of multiple connotations .The structure of the lifeworld and its contents constitute the category of the lifeworld as a whole. It has not only the intrinsic (cultural, social and individual) structure, but also the extrinsic interrelation and interaction with the objective, social and subjective world. Through communication, the communicative participants in the lifeworld get the access to the structure of the world.In so far as the background of the lifeworld, any two of the communicative participants with different subjective worlds interlink with both the objective world and the social world in the process of interaction during which they play different roles.In this way, the lifeworld and these three worlds constitute a tension field, where the communication process of both sides is completed.Habermas'meaning theory of communicative formal pragmatics stresses not only the description model of the use of assertions or language, but also the combination of meaningful forms of language.This kind of meaning theory also lays emphasis on the combination of utterance meaning and social practice, and at the same time,highlights the fundamental role of the lifeworld. That is, communicative action is always essentially embedded in the form of life.Based on Husserl's lifeworld and Wittgenstein's form of life, Habermas has developed the concept of the lifeworld and form of life through a detailed discussion and demonstrated the content and features of the lifeworld's structure ,which act as the background knowledge.The lifeworld constitutes the foundation of communication,it guarantees the validity claims ,the core of formal pragmatic theory of meaning in communication. As a fundamental condition, the lifeworld makes possible the interactive communication in cultural world. The lifeworld is all-inclusive, it absorbs all the special worlds into itself, and constitutes a common objective basis for all worlds. Therefore, formal pragmatic theory of meaning in communication must be supported by the lifeworld which acts as the foundation of the validity claims.Along with the trend of contemporary philosophy`s return to the lifeworld, the research of meaning theory has to enter the communication of the lifeworld. It is an inevitable trend that the meaning theory of communicative formal pragmatics returns to the lifeworld.Such theory of meaning can be the model of meaning research in the field of language philosophy shifting to the lifeworld.