THE PROBLEM OF THE COMMUNICATIVE COMMUNITY: KARL-OTTO APEL AND YUGOSLAV PRAXIS ANTI-STALINISM

Abstract

Drawing on the historical horizon and the hermeneutical situation involved in
interpreting a fragment from the Apel’s interview, this paper explores the fundamental
tenets of his philosophical transformation, with particular emphasis on his critique of
the Marxist paradigm. It also examines the connection between the Apel’s project and
the Yugoslav Praxis philosophers’ intention to shape a communicative community
and to contribute to the realization of a self-managing, democratic society.
This process—unfolding within the broader context of the de-Stalinization of
Yugoslav philosophy—proceeded from the re-philosophization of Marxism and
the affi rmation of the revolutionary-humanist potential of the dialectical-historical
principle of the negation of negation, through the development of an ontologically and
anthropologically grounded philosophy of praxis and the thematization of alienation,
to the conception of revolution as a presumed metaphilosophical instrument of class
consciousness and self-emancipation of the working class. The ultimate goal was to
overcome pseudo-socialist, that is, state-bureaucratic and techno-managerial forms
of order.
In its concluding considerations, the paper highlights the key shortcomings of both
the rationalist and humanist-utopian projects of transcendental pragmatics (discourse
ethics) and the Marxist idea of revolution. It further analyzes the reasons behind
the practical failure to establish a liberal and socialist democratic communicative
community and, consequently, to achieve the de-alienation of humanity. This failure
is interpreted as the result of an aporia between engaged intellectuals and the logic of
realpolitic—an impasse that prevented the realization of the fundamental humanist
and emancipatory ideals of modern philosophical thought. The paper ultimately raises
questions that radically call into doubt the scope and validity of these ambitions.