Abstract: Heidegger. This notion has been centrally located in contexts other than the specific study of practical action itself. Philosophers such as Aristotle, Kant, and Fichte have repeatedly noticed and even thematized the autonomy of practical action. However, this notion of the autonomy of practical action has not been viewed as requiring a reconceptualization of what knowledge and reason (practical reasoning) could mean independently of how they have been conceptualized in other contexts?specifically, how they had been conceptualized in theories of cognition orienting to an idea of theoretical knowledge. The latter was itself derived from the paradigmatic function attributed to knowledge expressed in propositional form or in conceptual thought. This essay examines the relation of reason and practical action by reviewing Habermas' and Husserl's theories of the relation between discourse and action (I), and then proposing Garfinkel's ethnomethodological studies of practical action as an alternative to Husserl's and Habermas' preoccupation with the primacy of theoretical discourse (II). In a final section I shall interpret Garfinkel's studies, following his own suggestions as studies in practical ethics, and make reference to similar themes in philosophical ethics (III).
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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