Cardozo Law Review
Abstract
The epistemological problem of critical theories is easy to state but hard to resolve. On the one hand, if the theories are too descriptive and draw their conceptual resources from the ideas and institutions which currently exist, they lose their critical force. While they may provide elaborate reconstructions of the structure of social practices, they remain internal to these practices, part of a field of knowledge in which, at worst, theory is merely a form of public relations. On the other hand, if they articulate forms of critique that are entirely external to the systems of knowledge and practice that exist, then they threaten to become elitist and dependent on "transcendental" support, hence lacking any basis in the experience of the subjects for whom the theory is articulated in the first place.
Keywords
Democracy, Political Systems and Governments, Jurisprudence, Legal History, Philosophy
Disciplines
Jurisprudence | Law | Legal History | Philosophy
Recommended Citation
Michael K. Power,
Habermas and the Counterfactual Imagination,
17
Cardozo L. Rev.
1005
(1996).
Available at:
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/clr/vol17/iss4/11
Included in
Jurisprudence Commons, Legal History Commons, Philosophy Commons