Hans Albert - Albert's Style of Writing and Criticizing

Albert's Style of Writing and Criticizing

Albert's plea is for critical rationalism. He avoids solemn preaching in favor of serious, serene discussion with people of different faith and thinking. While Popper always warned not to follow one's opponent into the mire, Albert follows them into their favored field of thinking on their own terms. So he criticized Heidegger's "being in the abyss" ("Sein im Ab-Grund"), Gadamer's "horizons melting together", Habermas's "consensual theoretical truth in the ideal discourse", Karl-Otto Apel's transcendental arguments, the theologian Hans Küng's "absolute-relative, this-life-and-hereafter, transcendental-immanent, allconcerning-allcontrolling most real reality in the very heart of things". Hans Albert meticulously follows their arguments to uncover:

• undiscovered premises
• new and often fatal consequences
• new and often better alternatives.

Underlying suppositions and injunctions of Albert's method are:

• Only if all alternatives to critical rationalism are untenable may one live with critical rationalism.
• There is value in keeping an open mind and learning from discussion. Other people may be right; thus give credit to their thinking.
• One should keep away from solemn gravity.
• One should avoid the moralising know-it-all but not conceal one's preferred way of life.