Formal Pragmatics, Beyond the Theory of Meaning

In the late period of his thought, Habermas presents his theory of formal pragmatics, inspired by the model of language functions of Karl Bühler and the theory of speech acts, in an effort to solve the deficiency of critical theory and provide a foundation for his social theory. By placing language in primacy as a special medium for gaining understanding, while removing the limitations of common theories of semantics, and using their strengths, formal pragmatics offers a theory beyond the theory of meaning in the way that it can play a role in current philosophical debates about truth, rationality and meaning, and it creates the foundation of the sociological theory of communicative action. This theory operates on the basis of the intertwining of meaning and universal validity claims, which have implications for both Habermas’s social and language philosophy. On the one hand, it provides a more convincing basis for the classification of speech acts than Austin’s proposals or Searle’s theoretical taxonomy. On the other hand, by proposing the doctrine of the internal connection of language with universal validity claims, it offers the possibility of reproducing a specific concept of social order through communicative action. In this way, pragmatics is not just a theory of meaning and unique to the philosophy of language, but is a normative foundation in all fields of knowledge. By narrating the process of forming, the article shows what it is, why it is important and how it goes beyond just a theory of meaning.