Between Reason and History: Habermas and the Idea of Progress

by Owen, David S.

• ISBN13: 9780791454107
• ISBN10: 079145410X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

Between Reason and History examines the role of the idea of progress both in Jurgen Habermas's critical social theory and in critical social theory in general. The reception to Habermas's magnum opus, The Theory of Communicative Action, has tended to downplay the theory of social evolution it contains, but there are no indepth examinations of this aspect of Habermas's critical theory. This book fills this gap by providing a comprehensive and detailed examination of Habermas's theory of social evolution, its significance within the wider scope of his critical social theory, and the importance of a theoretical understanding of history for any adequate critical social theory.

Author Biography

David S. Owen is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Hamline University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(6)
The Idea of Progress and Critical Social Theory	7	(24)
Critical Social Theory	7	(17)
Critical Hermeneutics	24	(5)
Summary	29	(2)
Habermas's Conception of Critical Social Theory	31	(42)
Formal Pragmatics	33	(18)
Communicative Action	35	(9)
Sociocultural Lifeworld	44	(3)
Communicative Rationality	47	(4)
The Developmental Theory of Social Evolution	51	(14)
Habermas's Reconstruction of Historical Materialism	52	(10)
Overview of the Mature Theory	62	(3)
The Theory of Modernity	65	(6)
Summary	71	(2)
The Developmental Theory of Social Evolution	73	(32)
General Considerations	73	(9)
Conceptual and Theoretical Distinctions	74	(5)
Epistemological Assumptions	79	(3)
Principal Elements	82	(23)
The Dimensions of Development	82	(5)
Rationalization	87	(3)
The Dynamic between Interaction and Labor	90	(5)
Developmental Logic and Empirical Mechanisms	95	(7)
Social Evolution as a Learning Process	102	(3)
The Idea of a Developmental Logic of History	105	(68)
The Concept of Developmental Logic	107	(23)
The Psychological Theoretic Conception	107	(4)
Formal Properties	111	(11)
The Social Theoretic Conception	122	(8)
The Developmental Logic Thesis	130	(43)
The Homological Arguments	131	(26)
The Formal-Pragmatic Argument	157	(7)
Further Questions	164	(9)
Progress and Social Evolution	173	(16)
Habermas's Conception of Progress	174	(5)
The Dialectic of Progress	179	(4)
A Differentiated Conception of Progress	183	(3)
Summary and Conclusions	186	(3)
Notes	189	(18)
Bibliography	207	(6)
Index	213