Habermas's Critical Theory of Society

Jane Braaten is Assistant Professor at Hampshire College and Mt. Holyoke College.

• List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. An Outline of Habermas's Critical Theory 2. A Consensus Theory of Truth and Knowledge The Meaning of 'Truth"A Problem 3. A Consensus Theory of Normative Validity Discursive Will Formation and Need InterpretationGeneralizable Interests and the Principle of UniveralizationJustifying the Principle of Universalization 4. The Theory of Communicative Competence Aesthetic-Expressive RationalityCommunicative Action and Communicative RationalityFormal Pragmatics: An OverviewDoes Communicative Competence Entail an Interest in Reaching UnderstandingCommunicative Rationality Again 5. The Critique of Societal Rationalization The Lifeworld and the Method of UnderstandingThe System and Functional ExplanationThe Critique of Modern SocietyMethodological Issues 6. Two Challenges: Positivism and Postmodernism Habermas and the Legacy of PositivismThe Defense of Modernism 7. Critical Applications of the Theory The End of Public Debate: The Mass MediaThe Politics of Need Interpretation and the Welfare SystemSocial Psychology as Social Ignorance: A Critical Approach to Social PsychologyConcluding Remarks Notes Bibliography Index

"The book presents some very complex topics and views in an uncluttered manner. This is not easy to do, and the author has done it well." — Kenneth Baynes, State University of New York at Stony Brook