The Theory of Communicative Action: Reason and the Rationalization of Society, Volume 1 1st Edition by Jürgen Habermas (PDF)

Description

Here, for the first time in English, is volume one of Jurgen Habermas’s long-awaited magnum opus: The Theory of Communicative Action. This pathbreaking work is guided by three interrelated concerns: (1) to develop a concept of communicative rationality that is no longer tied to the subjective and individualistic premises of modern social and political theory; (2) to construct a two-level concept of society that integrates the ‘lifeworld’ and ‘system’ paradigms; and (3) to sketch out a critical theory of modernity that explains its sociopathologies in a new way. Habermas approaches these tasks through a combination of conceptual analyses, systematic reflections, and critical reconstructions of such predecessors as Marx and Weber, Durkheim and Mead, Horkheimer and Adorno, Schutz and Parsons. Reason and the Rationalization of Society develops a sociological theory of action that stresses not its means-ends or teleological aspect, but the need to coordinate action socially via communication. In the introductory chapter Habermas sets out a powerful series of arguments on such foundational issues as cultural and historical relativism, the methodology of Verstehen, the inseparabilty of interpretation from critique. In addition to clarifying the normative foundations of critical social inquiry, this sets the stage for a systematic appropriation of Weber’s theory of rationalization and its Marxist reception by Lukacs, Horkheimer and Adorno.This is an important book for degree students of philosophy, sociology and related subjects.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I have delved into Habermas for research purposes. His work makes for tough reading, but it is like a magnet, drawing you in and pulling you back when you think you have had enough. His ability to engage in debate with the philosophical and sociological traditions and scholars of his time offers a kind of mind map without which you can barely have a sufficient understanding of societal developments and trends of the previous and current century. For now my interest is primarily in his theory of communicative action as worked out in two volumes and some of his later works that sprout forth from that. I surely regret that I have discovered his work at such a late stage in my life. My journey with him will definitely continue.

⭐The book is clearly written for an academic audience. It is very dense (sometimes extremely dense), but it is unbelievably rich at the same time. Well worth investing the effort to read it. Incredibly thorough and well-documented. A classic from the great Juergen Habermas!

⭐The book is clearly written for an academic audience. It is very dense (sometimes extremely dense), but it is unbelievably rich at the same time. Well worth investing the effort to read it. Incredibly thorough and well-documented. A classic from the great Juergen Habermas!

⭐Lot’s of information and drew good discussion.

⭐thank you

⭐awesome

⭐Though it may seem strange to old hands to say so, Jürgen Habermas is neglected in American intellectual culture: all the people who still soak up Sartre and Derrida often don’t know to move on to the work of this “planetary” figure in philosophy and sociology. *Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns*, a 1981 work in two large volumes — both of which were translated with corrections by Thomas McCarthy a few years later — is the most of Habermas: though his gigantic intelligence shines through when discussing more “literary” authors or current issues, a systematic social theory which is all-encompassing without being quietistically technocratic is what he was born to concoct. The other reviewers here seem to me to be a bit off in stressing the continuity of Vol. 1, *Reason and the Rationalization of Society*, and Vol. 2, *Lifeworld and System*: it is true you should, if time is ample, read one after the other but they deal with slightly different issues in different ways. This first volume is more “philosophical”, while the sequel tries to update Talcott Parsons’ mature sociology in a way that leaves an opening for social critique omitted by Habermas’s Parsonsite rival Niklas Luhmann.The sociologist being cross-examined in this volume is Max Weber, whose influence on critical social theory was direct (in the form of his friendship with Georg Lukacs before he went communist) and widespread due to the world-historical sweep of his scholarship and the philosophical acuity of his typology of action. Habermas starts with Weber’s famous distinction between “purposive rationality” and “value rationality”, and then expands the catalogue of rational justifications for individual actions and social institutions with two more: “dramaturgical” rationality, personified by Erving Goffman and his famous studies of the “presentation of self in everyday life”, and finally “communicative rationality” — Habermas’s candidate for an all-encompassing form of rational justification. He sees his focus on unforced coming to agreement as a human activity foreshadowed in George Herbert Mead’s “taking the attitude of the other”, and the expansion of the concept of rationality found in Anglo-American analytic philosophers like Stephen Toulmin and Peter Winch, along with the speech-act theory of the younger John Searle, is applied to sharply delineate this category.Younger people with a couple of books by Hardt and Negri may find the social critique in Habermas, who once called himself “the last historical materialist”, unbearably tepid: but he has seen the worst of the worst in his lifetime, and remained at this time intent on avoiding the mistakes of those he called “left fascists” in the ’60s (often such people lapsed into the merest liberalism a few years later and cursed anyone still seeing a value in the works of Marx or any other “sanguinary” socialist). As a systematic work of social theory this has not been surpassed.

⭐This review is in response to the negative review posted here by Justin Evans. This is also more of a defense and appreciation of Habermas’ work in general.I’ve read a lot of Hegel, and I do not think Habermas misreads Hegel. It is a profoundly insightful critique of Hegel to say that while he recognized the dialectical construction of History he wrongly insisted on making its comprehension the possession of a monological absolute subject. I don’t think there is any better way to explain the persistent conflict that irrupts in a room of Hegelians (I’ve seen it many times) than that there is a fundamentally problematic monomania in Hegelian philosophy (reflective of most previous Western philosophy as well).Don’t misunderstand what Habermas means by “universal”. It would be a mistake to take his critique of relativism vis-a-vis universalism as a search for some kind of Platonic purity apart from the situated individual. Habermas only uses the term “universal” in conjunction with “pragmatics”, referring to the easily reasonable claim that any use of language (thus meaning) in any time or place, implies communicative action between language users.A better comprehension of Habermas’ approach here is aided by a critical reading of Heidegger’s phenomenological analysis of Dasein. Despite Heidegger’s own clearly frustrated desire for a monological meaning of being, his committed phenomenology reveals Dasein’s essential being-with-an-other. When Heidegger discloses the inauthenticity-of-understanding-as-they-understand as the very condition for first developing one’s own authenticity, it is better understood in Habermas’ less morally pejorative terms of moving from being a conventional language user to becoming a post-conventional language user.Habermas’ theory of communicative action brings great clarity to critical thinking if you’ve been frustratingly spellbound by the parade of egocentric failures in theory from Cartesian foundationalism to Hegelian absolute subjectivity to Heideggerian ontology.In the end it just seems difficult for people with strong intellects (like those attracted to theory) to accept that our own meanings are contingent upon interaction with an other in an open-ended way. Thus most of the great philosophers and theorists tend to fantasize about an ultimate closure which can be grasped within themselves by themselves.

⭐I bought this as part of my Master’s degree thesis and whilst I managed to grasp many of Habermas’ core concepts, it’s undoubtedly one of the most challenging academic books I’ve ever read; indeed one of the toughest I’ve ever fought to get my head around.

⭐this was a present

⭐Excellent

⭐Although certainly important for the history of sociology, having revisited this book after years of study and research I’m shocked by how dated and clumsy it is. It doesn’t stand up the way, say Bhaskar and Foucault do. A colleague told me a few years ago that Habermas recanted the whole project; I don’t know if this is true. Students of social theory: tread warily.

⭐This book is unbelievably boring. The first volume is a summary of sociologists, and an unfair one at that (fans of Weber – do not read this book, you’ll only get upset) – the second volume is pretty much the same. Mind-numbingly dull and not worth the effort.

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