Page 89 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

66 Communication and Evolution of Society

which, in a given context, justify an interpersonal relation that is
to be performatively established. Finally, he claims truthfulness
for the intentions expressed. Of course, individual validity claims
can be thematically stressed, whereby the truth of the proposi-
tional content comes to the fore in the cognitive use of language,
the rightness (or appropriateness) of the interpersonal relation
in the interactive, and the truthfulness of the speaker in the ex-
pressive. But in every instance of communicative action the sys-
tem of all validity claims comes into play; they must always be
raised simultaneously, although they cannot all be thematic at the
same time.
The universality of the validity claims inherent in the structure
of speech can perhaps be elucidated with reference to the system-
atic place of language. Language is the medium through which
speakers and hearers realize certain fundamental demarcations.
The subject demarcates himself: (1) from an environment that
he objectifies in the third-person attitude of an observer; (2)
from an environment that he conforms to or deviates from in the
ego-alter attitude of a participant; (3) from his own subjectivity
that he expresses or conceals in a first-person attitude; and finally
(4) from the medium of language itself. For these domains of
reality I have proposed the somewhat arbitrarily chosen terms:
external nature, society, internal nature, and language. The validity
claims unavoidably implied in speech oriented to reaching under-
standing show that these four regions must always simultaneously
appear. I shall characterize the way in which these regions appear
with a few phenomenological indications.
By external nature 1 mean the objectivated segment of reality
that the adult subject is able (even if only mediately) to perceive
and manipulate. One can, of course, adopt an objectivating at-
titude not only toward inanimate nature but toward all objects
and states of affairs that are directly or indirectly accessible to
sensory experience. Soczety designates that symbolically prestruc-
tured segment of reality that the adult subject can understand in
a nonconformative attitude, that is, as one acting communica-
tively (as a participant in a system of communication). Legiti-
mate interpersonal relations belong here, as do institutions, tra-
ditions, cultural values, etc. We can replace this conformative