Page History

...

But more than that, I have recognized all along, at least since The Reality ofGod (28 f.), that, in all of the different fields of reasoning or argumentation oriented by, and corresponding to, our vital interests and questions, there are two kinds (better: levels) of such reasoning. Therefore, while it was indeed Habermas who subsequently confirmed the importance ofthis distinctio~ and to whose way of making it I am keenly conscious of being indebted in all of my more recent work, it has been explicitly anticipated in my thinking from its formative stage on.

In any event, I see nothing in allowing such a distinction that would compromise what I want to say; and allowing it may have a certain strategic or tactical advantage in making my case. On the other hand, considering that I have---in effect, and even in so many words-already long made the distinction, I can't be too optimistic about the difference that making it now is likely to make.

23 August 1999; rev. 17 November 2008