VII. Knowledge-Constitutive Interests

Rosa convincingly argues that the modern pursuit of making the world controllable involves rendering it (1) visible, (2) physically reachable or accessible, (3) manageable, and (4) useful. It is noticeable, however, that—in relation to this matter—Rosa fails to make reference to Habermas’s influential theory of knowledge-constitutive interests. Knowledge-constitutive interests are permeated by the simultaneous presence of different forms and degrees of controllability, semicontrollability, and uncontrollability. Cross-fertilizing Habermas’s tripartite account of Erkenntnis und Interesse (technical–practical–emancipatory) with Rosa’s tripartite account of Weltbeziehung (controllability–semicontrollability–uncontrollability) permits us to grasp the extent to which the pursuit of knowledge-constitutive interests is marked by the tension between Verfügbarkeit and Unverfügbarkeit.