Normative and conventional in transcendental, pragmatic and transcendental-pragmatic discourses. Article 1. Phenomena of Normativity and Conventionality in Modern Philosophical Interpretations: Pragmatic Trend

Abstract

The article explores the specifics of transcendental and pragmatic approaches to the problems of normativity and conventionality in the scope of Apel's philosophical project of transcendental pragmatics. The features of their thematization and implementation within the discourses of transcendental and pragmatic philosophy, as well as the synthetic – transcendental-pragmatic discourse are highlighted. The distinction between the dimensions of pragmatics and pragmatism is articulated, which together constitute the meaning of the term “pragmatic”. The author justifies the relevance of the issues of conventionality and normativity in the modern philosophical context by a wide range of their interpretations within different directions and approaches. Taking into account the diversity of existing conceptualizations of the normative and the conventional in contemporary philosophy, the author emphasizes the particular significance of this issue for pragmatically oriented one. This is because the phenomenon of action – both in its literal sense (behavioral action) and in its non-literal sense (speech action) – presupposes the actualization of the community factor and, consequently, the social vector of philosophical reflections, within which the questions of conventionality and normativity hold exceptional importance. The study found that the meaning of the normative is revealed largely through the following distinctions: norms vs. facts, normativity vs. descriptiveness, normativism vs. naturalism. Special attention is paid to R. Brandom’s conception of “normative pragmatics”. In the context of the present study, the author emphasizes such traits of Brandomian approach as the overlap of pragmatics and pragmatism (and, accordingly, language and action), as well as the subordination of semantics to the pragmatic realm in both its dimensions: pragmatics and pragmatism. The analytical background of the work is the transcendental discourse, from the perspective of which the author's reflection is carried out.