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On my account, the process of appropriating constatives, or Inaking thenL making them one's own, involves not only understanding, or interpreting, theInthem, but also validating their claiIns claims to validity-above all, their claim to be true. But I've also allowed that appropriating constatives in this way Inay may be nLore more or less critical depending on whether the criteria of judgIlLent judgment are consuetudinary criteria only or also, and finally, the ultiIlLate ultimate criteria of experience and reason, as these may require to be elnployed employed in the context of nLeaning meaning in question.

This all applies, however, mutatis mutandis, to validating the clairn claim of constatives to be appropriate as well as true or credible. Thus certain cOllstatives IlLaking constatives making up Christian witness Inay may be judged appropriate because they are in substantial agreement with scripture and tradition. But a Inore more critical judglnentjudgment, employing the ultimate criteria of appropriatenessanalogous appropriateness-analogous to experience and reason as ultimate criteria of credibilitydeinands credibility-demands that they agree with the constitutive witness of the apostles, by which the appropriateness even of scripture and tradition theinselves ulti.mately themselves ultimately have to be judged. Similarly, a less critical judginent judgment of the credibility of the same constantives might judge them to be credible because they can claillL claim the support of this, that, or the other philosophy, whereas a 11lore more critical judgnLent judgment would require appealing beyond all philosophies to experience and reason themselves.

Distinguishing thus between more and less critical ways of appropriating constatives is, of course, how I appropriate HaberIlLasHabermas' analysis, according to which (in McCarthy's words), "the obligations iininanent immanent to speech acts can be met at two levels: immediately in the context of interaction-through recourse to experiential certainty.. ,-or mediately, in ... theoretical discourse."

This all applies, however,

Distinguishing thus between more and less critical ways of appropriating constatives is, of course, how

29 January 2008