Modern rationality is procedural rather than substantive across all value spheres
Evidence
In consequence, a distinctively modern, ‘decentred’ understanding of the world develops in which nature is no longer a projection of human preoccupations. On the other hand, this process of rationalization involves the formalization of reason itself. Rationality no longer consists in certain substantive views, but in the procedures by means of which we come to hold our views. These procedures are those implicit in every speech act: ‘The unity of rationality in the multiplicity of value spheres rationalized according to their inner logics is secured precisely at the formal level of their argumentative redemption of validity-claims.’ — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 392
Categorization
- DEFINE: Formalization of reason into procedures of argumentative validity-redemption is a precise, contestable definition that the author can aim squarely at Jameson’s claims about rationality’s collapse.
- XREF: Directly engages Habermas’s reconciliation of Weber’s ‘bewitched’ value spheres with a unified rationality, the key move that distinguishes the Marxist-modernist response from postmodern fragmentation. — connects to: Classical social theory defined modernity by the application of scientific rationality over tradition — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 151; Rationality in social theory attaches to systems and functions, not individual decisions — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 308; Technical rationality makes irrational social control appear reasonable and rational — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 124 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Weber’s formal rationality blinds judgement to the worth of means
#expands(0.85) - Social organization displaces autonomous moral drive with instrumental and procedural rationality
#exemplifies(0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 612 - Rationality in social theory attaches to systems and functions, not individual decisions
#expands(0.82) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 308 - Technical rationality makes irrational social control appear reasonable and rational
#expands(0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 124 - Instrumental rationality’s dominance results from system-lifeworld uncoupling, not from reason’s inherent dialectic.
#expands(0.80) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 395 - Systems are rational by reducing complexity without overburdening the individual
#exemplifies(0.78) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 324