Caleb’s Reviews > From Alienation to Forms of Life: The Critical Theory of Rahel Jaeggi > Status Update

If the functional is ethical, the ethical is also functional, an effect of the functionality of a certain practice / set of norms.

A form of life, Jaeggi maintains, can thus be criticized in light of its “history of problem-solving attempts.” The “rationality”—indeed, the “success”—of a form of life can be measured in light of its capacity to address its problems and to learn from its history of problem solving.

"The well functioning of a social practice, then, cannot be determined solely by regarding it in isolation from the other practices that constitute a form of life; a very large part of a practice’s well functioning depends on how well integrated it is with the social organism’s other vital functions."