Transcript Habermas - UMN Department of Sociology

Habermas
Critical Theory
Habermas –
second generation critical theorist
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Progress AND Emancipation
Knowledge used to achieve just and
democratic social order
Integrate philosophy and empirical science for
moral critique and social change
Goals
Goal of Theory - Survival of democracy in an
increasingly rationalized world
Need to
 Reconstruct Marxism
 Use social critique to promote human
freedom
 Expand public sphere and civil society to
create possibilities for rational consensus
Knowledge
Structured by human interests
 “Technical” human interest
 “Practical” human interest
 “Emancipatory” interest
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Shifted from Interest to Communication
Communication
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Linguistic communication presupposes and
orientation to consensus
Communication requires “validity claims”
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nature of the world
what kinds of social rules are right
Goal of reasoned consensus
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requires the open dialogue and information
“ideal speech situation”
Colonization of the Lifeworld
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Lifeworld –
commonsense world of everyday life
interpersonal communication
System –
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Structures (family, legal system, economy)
that have source in lifeworld
Develop own distinct existence, gradually
separate from lifeworld
Colonization of the Lifeworld
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Increasing complexity, autonomy and
power of the system
Exerts itself on the lifeworld.
Must manage this through rational
consensus