An Interpretation Of Habermas's Thoughtway Of Mass Culture From The Perspective Of "Life-world"

Habermas claims that the Critique of instrumental reason which advocated by scholars of early Frankfurt school, such as Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, is a complete failure. This situation firstly is due to the absence of common standard; on the other hand, the Critique itself fails to penetrate the pathology symptom of modern capitalistic society. To ensure vitality of Critique theory, the essential point is to transform consciousness philosophical tradition into communication pattern of linguistic philosophy.Base his theory on "communication pattern", Habermas holds that modern society is subject to two powers both contradict and dependent, which is, namely social integration and systematic integration. From the view of system, society is a functional system of self-adjustment; from the view of culture, society is a "life-world" of symbol--meaning reproduction. The nature of modern capitalistic pathology is the system over-expansion and colonized "life-world", which is caused by the intrusion of system media. In short, the morbid state of modern capitalistic society is evidently the morbidity of culture.Regarding mass culture early Frankfurt school confused mass culture with instrumental reason. To keep a solid foundation for further Critique, A "pattern transformation is immediately needed.Starting from the standpoint of "life-world", Habermas comes to conclusion that the matter of mass culture is naturally the matter of modernity. Mass culture represents a kind of morbid culture which is produced by the transgression of system media into "life-world". At the operation of system media, culture oriented itself to system benefit and lost sight of its own destination, which is the free communication between individuals in the "life--world'.Habermas also points out that the extreme attitude toward mass culture, both absolutely "hopeful" and "desperate", which entertained by early Adorno andBenjamin, is an expression of the absence of "evaluation standard". The semantic "ideal communication" must be introduced into the evaluation of mass culture and build a strict standard. As for the methodology of mass cultural study, philosophical Critique and empirical study should be put together organically. Upon the reflection of early Frankfurt school's "cultural industry theory", Habermas advances his step by suggesting the new idea of "public sphere".While we learn from the experience of western modernization, should our media system consciously draw lessons from their western counterpart and insist taking our own way? What is the best way to construct an ideal "public sphere"? All these questions are worth thinking. Through his mediation of "mass culture", Habermas presents us a lot of valuable inspirations.