ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that rationality be seen in the broadest terms as that which assists conscious beings in their activities, negotiating a complex and sometimes hostile world. Early twentieth century thought was dominated by a conception of rationality which sparked a re-evaluation of the nature and status of many traditional subjects. Rationality is limited to the sphere of determining fact and it thus becomes imperative to show that the facts, suggesting appropriate means, are indeed separable from the ends determined by nonrational valuations. The logical positivists’ conception of rationality is a species of ‘means-end’ or ‘technical’ rationality, though it is the one which takes Hume’s rigorous empiricism most seriously. The destructive concept of reason permeates individual consciousness and society at every level. Habermas tries to argue for the possibility of rational moral discourse by showing that the possibility of agreement on objective truths is a presupposition of our use of language.
