La Disputa Del Positivismo En La Sociología Alemana

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La Disputa Del Positivismo En La Sociología Alemana COLECCIÓN «TEORÍA Y REALIDAD» Estudios críticos de filosofía y ciencias sociales Dirií^lda por Jacoho Míifíoz Títulos publicados 1. LA DISPUTA DEL P0SITIVIS:\í0 EN LA SOCIOLOGÍA ALEMANA, por Theodor W. Adorno y otros 2. SOCIEDAD ANTAGÓNICA Y DEMOCRACIA POLÍTICA, por Wolfgang Abendroth 3. GEORG LUKÁCS. El hombre, su obra, sus ideas, por G. H. R. Parkinson 4. EL COMUNISMO DE BUJARIN, por A. G. Lowy En preparación 5. LA ESTRUCTURA LÓGICA DE "EL CAPITAL" DE MARX, por /. Zeleny 6. HISTORIA Y DIALÉCTICA EN LA ECONOMÍA POLÍTICA, por Otto Morg THEODOR W. ADORNO - KARL R. POPPER RALE DAHRENDORF - JÜRGEN HABERMAS HANS ALBERT - HARALD PÍLOT LA DISPUTA DEL POSITIMSMO EN LA SOCIOLOGÍA ALEMANA Traducción castellana de JACOEO MLIÑOZ COLECCIÓN «TEORÍA Y REALIDAD» 1 •R EDICIONES GRIJALBO, S. A. BARCELONA — MÉXICO, D. F. 1973 Título original DER POSSITIVISMUSSTREIT IN DER DEUTSCHEN SOZIOLOGIE Traducido por JACOBO MUÑOZ de la 1.' edición alemana de Hermann Luchterhand Verlag, Neuwied und Berlin, 1969 © 1969, HERMANN LUCHTERHAND VERLAG GmbH © 1972, EDICIONES GRIJALBO, S. A. Aragón, 386, Barcelona, 9 (España) Primera edición Reservados todos los derechos IMPRESO EN ESPAÑA PRINTED IN SPAIN Depósito Legal: B. 40690 -1972 Impreso por Gráficas Diamante, Zamora, 83, Barcelona, 5 ÍNDICE Nota marginal a una polémica 7 Theodor W. Adorno. Introducción 11 Theodor W. Adorno. Sociología e investigación empírica . 81 Karl R. Popper. lúa. lógica de las ciencias sociales . 101 Theodor W. Adorno. Sobre la lógica de las ciencias sociales. 121 Ralf Dahrendorf. Anotaciones a la discusión de las ponencias de Karl R. Popper y T. W. Adorno 139 Jürgen Habermas. Teoría analítica de la ciencia y dialéctica. 147 Hans Albert. El mito de la razón total 181 Jürgen Habermas. Contra un racionalismo menguado de modo positivista 221 Hans Albert. ¿A espaldas del positivismo? 251 Harald Pilot. La filosofía de la historia empíricamente falsa- ble de Jürgen Habermas 287 Hans Albert. Breve y sorprendido epílogo a una gran intro­ ducción 313 Noticia Biobibliográfica 319 índice de Nombres 323 NOTA MARGINAL A UNA POLÉMICA Se reúnen en el presfcnte volumen bajo el rótulo genérico de La disputa del positivismo en la sociología alem-ana, los documentos de una reciente —y en modo alguno resuelta— polémica, que por su especial significado y amplio espectro de incidencia desborda, con mucho, los usuales márgenes del interés profesoral o académi­ co. Sus grandes protagonistas son Theodor W. Adorno y Karl R. Popper, jefes-de-fila, respectivamente, de la «teoría crítica de la sociedad» y del «racionalismo crítico», y su ámbito inicial, la lógica de las ciencias sociales. Las singulares características de ambas co­ rrientes, su filiación histórica específica y, sobre todo, la nada ce­ ñida imagen de la parte contraria (fruto, en ocasiones, de lo que no pueden ser calificadas' sino como meras ignorationes elenchi) de la que en su argumentación parten unos y otros, explican la sor­ prendente extensión del radio de la polémica, más allá de los inter­ locutores iniciales, a la filosofía analítica en general, erróneamente identificada por muchos con lo que sólo ha sido una de sus fases, el «positivismo» o «neopositivismo», y a lo que con no menor im­ precisión suele llamarse el «marxismo crítico occidental» de raíz hegeliana. (Marxismo «crítico» inserto, desde luego, en la tradición metafísica de las Geisteswissenschaften —lo que explica, entre otras cosas, el impasse final del refinado e impotente leoreticismo de la praxis en que cae Adorno o el ideologismo escatológico de las últimas manifestaciones de Horkheimer— y al que hubiera resul­ tado harto instructivo contrastar, en el ámbito mismo de esta po­ lémica, y dado su contenido real, con las posiciones teórico-episte- mológicas y filosófico-políticas de un marxismo más rigurosamente contemporáneo —o menos suspecto de recelo ante el conocimiento científico-positivo y la actual teoría de la ciencia— y, en consecuen­ cia, mejor dotado para apurar la problemática que en las siguientes páginas tan trabajosamente se dirime). 8 Nota marginal a una polémica Nada menos acertado, por otra parte, que suponer reducida esta polémica, de acuerdo con el título de las ponencias de Popper y Adorno, al plano de las disputas metodológica^. La primitiva dis­ cusión de divergencias de este orden —nunca definitivamente aco- tables, como bien puede suponerse, en virtud de las diferencias de lenguaje y armazón conceptual que separan ambas corrientes— cede a la ambiciosa confrontación global de dos concepciones dis­ tintas de la sociología, de dos talantes filosóficos y epistemológicos difícilmente reducibles a un común denominador, de dos tipos di­ ferentes, en suma, de razón. Si es que en efecto resulta lícito ha­ blar, como suele hacerse en este contexto, de razón analítica y razón dialéctica, dando así por probada —con el simple recurso a la metáfora— la existencia de dos razones, de las que antes con­ vendría indagar si no vendrán, en definitiva, a constituir funciones distintas (opuestas o complementarias: ésta sería otra cuestión a discutir en una posible desmitificación de tan confuso asunto) de un mismo recurso instrumental. Las ponencias de Popper y Adorno fueron leídas por sus auto­ res en un Congreso celebrado en octubre de 1961 en Tübingen a iniciativa de la Sociedad Alemana de Sociología. El tema de la se­ sión —la lógica de las ciencias sociales— fue elegido por los orga­ nizadores del acto con el preciso objeto de clarificar, en la medida de lo posible, lo que no podía menos de parecer ya un cisma indes­ cifrable. En sus «Anotaciones a la discusión de las ponencias de Karl R. Popper y Theodor W. Adorno» Ralf Dahrendorf se expresa bien claramente en este sentido: «No es ningún secreto que entre los' profesores universitarios alemanes de sociología de la genera­ ción actual median diferencias muy acusadas en la orientación de las investigaciones, y no sólo en esto, sino también en la posición teórica e incluso en el talante básico de orden moral y político. A raíz de las discusiones de los últimos años llegó en un momento a pensarse que la dilucidación de los fundamentos lógico-científi­ cos de la sociología podría ser un camino adecuado para iluminar las diferencias existentes, coadyuvando así a que la investigación resultara más fructífera». Situar el foco de la discusión en el terreno básico y fundamen­ tante de la metodología obedecía, por otra parte, a la mejor tradi­ ción de la disciplina. Se ha dicho que ésta es la tercera gran dispu­ ta metodológica de las ciencias sociales en el ámbito lingüístico alemán. Y que al igual que las anteriores —el enfrentamiento entre Gustav von Schmoller y Karl Menger a propósito del inductivismo histórico y el deducíivismo teorético en la economía política a fi­ nes del XIX y la célebre polémica en torno a los juicios de valor y Nota marginal a una polémica 9 la pretendida «desvinculación axiológica» (Wertfreiheit) desatada, en un clima de tensión poco común, por Max Weber en 1909 y que aún divide a los profesionales de estas disciplinas^— ha acabado por convertirse, como el lector de los trabajos aquí reunidos percibe en seguida, en una disputa sobre fines (en este caso, y en los ante­ riores, en cierto modo, también, sobre la naturaleza y función de las ciencias sociales en la sociedad contemporánea). El peso de la polémica corresponde, de todos modos, a las in­ tervenciones de Jürgen Habermas (al que no cabe calificar, sin más, de «frankfurtiano» estricto) y de Hans Albcrt (sistematizador, en numerosas publicaciones, de las tesis de Popper). La ordenación de ambas posturas de cara a una contrastación crítica entre una y otra, más allá del simple enunciado programático o del slogan volunlarista, debe ser buscada en sus respectivos trabajos. Y el ba­ lance final, en el que todo queda abierto e inconcluso, en la Intro­ ducción de Adorno. Desde el ángulo, mucho más concreto, de una cuestión dispu­ tada —«¿Capitalismo avanzado o sociedad industrial?»— la polémi­ ca se repitió, en sus momentos esenciales, en el Congreso de 1968. Celebrado esta vez en Frankfurt —la cuna de la «teoría crítica»—, la clarificación del conflicto en la que, tras de una preparación tan larga, confiaban algunos, cedió a lo que definitivamente hay que considerar, según parece, como un endurecimiento de frentes no separable, por supuesto, del general trasfondo político de todo el asunto. Por una vez, al menos, el problema en juego es, pues, de eviden­ cia y peso innegables, lo que permite sustraerlo a ese «magma mer­ cantil de constante y falso cambio», en el que, como fruto de la fusión de la publicidad con las pulsaciones del gusto y con la pro­ ducción artística e ideológica, vienen siendo integrados, de manera creciente, los más diversos momentos de la subcultura pretendida­ mente superior o académica. A pesar de su abierta y manipulable actualidad —o, en virtud, quizá, de la real potencia de la misma— el haz de cuestiones a cuyo desarrollo más o menos fragmentario cabe asistir a lo largo de los siguientes ensayos puede resistir muy bien la prueba de esa desconfiada reticencia a la que con tanta frecuencia se ven obligados a acogerse, en nuestro mundo cultural, cuantos todavía no se han resignado irremediablemente a confundir moda y teoría en un mirage venal o autojustificatorio. JACOBO MUÑOZ Departamento de Historia de la Filosofía Universidad de Barcelona THEODOR W. ADORNO INTRODUCCIÓN A Fred Pollock en sus setenta y cinco años con amistad sincera «Sésamo, ¡ábrete, quiero salir!» STANISLAW JERZY LEC En sus penetrantes observaciones a la discusión celebrada en Tübingen a raíz de las dos ponencias que abrieron en Alemania la controversia pública en torno a la dialéctica y a la sociología positivista en el más amplio sentido •, Ralf Dahrendorf se lamenta de que «durante toda la discusión se echara a faltar la intensidad propia de unas diferencias de puntos de vista del calibre de las existentes»^, añadiendo que, en consecuencia, algunos de los par­ ticipantes en la discusión pusieron de relieve «la falta de tensión perceptible entre las dos ponencias principales y sus autores»^.
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