Habermas and Truth
gary e. davis

Habermas’s sense of truth is largely explicated in On the Pragmatics of Communication (1998), prior to Truth and Justification (Ger: 1999; Eng: 2003).

The following discussions (links) were initially posted to an academic discussion group, 2003. They weren’t improvised; they were careful discussions, but done as postings. Yet, as postings to persons I knew pretty well online, they also sometimes had an informal tone, sometimes quite expressive. I had my own project in mind (not overtly discussed), in which I wanted to appropriate fair reading of Habermas. But the prevailing point was to be fair to Habermas’s views, then work from there.

Over ten years have passed since I did the discussions, so I’m providing a sense of time passed by commenting—intended to be minor, when I began transposing the discussions to Webpage; but my commentary grew in proportion: interpreting what I was doing, what I now think, and what I want to do. Though the earlier discussions remain valid to me, I do feel distance; and I’ve enjoyed the chance to think beyond my earlier discussion. You might enjoy it, too. I’ll do comment in this font, showing how learning never ends.

The first item here is not part of the 2003 group. It’s a recent posting. It links back to here at its end.

• notes on Truth

• What is truth for?

• philosophy of Truth

• deflationary truth

• “pragmatic” truth

• an epistemic sense of truth

• finitude of discursive truth

• a note on pragmatics of justification

• Truth of JH’s “creative renewal”

• coda: from creative reason to health of nations


I realize that this brown comment convention gets tedious, as you read through long pages, as if anyone cares about the difference between my 2003 discussion and 2014 review and amplification of that. It’s good for me, though. I’ll remove the font difference later, smoothing it all into a singular thing.