The Norms of Answerability: Social Theory Between Bakhtin and HabermasGreg M. Nielsen brings Mikhail Bakhtin's ethics and aesthetics into a dialogue with social theory that responds to the sense of ambivalence and uncertainty at the core of modern societies. Nielsen situates a social theory between Bakhtin's norms of answerability and Jürgen Habermas's sociology, ethics, and discourse theory of democracy in a way that emphasizes the creative dimension in social action without reducing explanation to the emotional and volitional impulse of the individual or collective actor. Some of the classical sources that support this mediated position are traced to Alexander Vvedenskij's and Georg Simmel's critiques of Kant's ethics, Hermann Cohen's philosophy of fellowship, and Max Weber's and George Herbert Mead's theories of action. In the shift from Bakhtin's theory of interpersonal relations to a dialogic theory of societal events that defends the bold claim that law and politics should not be completely separated from the specificity of ethical and cultural communities, a study of citizenship and national identity is developed. |
Contents
Theory on the Borders of Sociology | 1 |
1 DIVERSITY AND TRANSCULTURAL ETHICS | 23 |
2 COMMUNICATIVE ACTION OR DIALOGUE? | 49 |
3 THE WORLD OF OTHERS WORDS | 67 |
4 ON THE SOURCES OF YOUNG BAKHTINS ETHICS Kant Vvedenskij Simmel Cohen | 89 |
5 ACTION AND EROS KantWeberBakhtin | 109 |
6 REFLEXIVE SUBJECTIVITY MeadBakhtin | 125 |
7 CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONAL IDENTITY | 143 |
8 A DIALOGUE ON THE NATION IN POSTNATIONAL TIMES | 167 |
On Culture and the Political | 201 |
NOTES | 209 |
225 | |
241 | |
Other editions - View all
The Norms of Answerability: Social Theory Between Bakhtin and Habermas Greg M. Nielsen Limited preview - 2002 |
The Norms of Answerability: Social Theory Between Bakhtin and Habermas Greg M. Nielsen Limited preview - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
actors aesthetic analysis argument Bakhtin and Habermas Bakhtin’s approach become Canadian Categorical Imperative chapter citizenship claims Cohen communicative action consciousness consummate contemporary context creative dimension critical critical theory critique culture debate defined definition democracy developed discourse ethics discussion Dostoevsky’s Dumont emotional-volitional essay ethnos ethnos and demos fourth postulate genres George Herbert Mead globalization Habermas’s heteroglossia ical idea imaginary individual intersubjectivity Joas Kant Kant’s Kymlicka language lifeworld linguistic linguistic turn Mead and Bakhtin Mead’s means modern moral nation-states national identity national minority neo-Kantian Nielsen novel object one’s orientation other’s paradox philosophy polyphony position postconventional postnational pragmatic problem Quebec Quebec nationalism Québécois question recognition response Rioux seen self-other relation sense shift Simmel social action social theory society sociology sociology of culture sovereignty speech sphere Taylor theoretical theorists thinkers tion tradition transcultural ethics transgredient understanding unique universal utterance values Weber word