A Study On The Theory Of Communicative Action Of Late Capitalism

Modern western society is now in the period of late capitalism. Some conclusions of Marxism formed in the 1940 s that explains social phenomenon in late capitalism is reducing its effect. Social communicative theory is part of the theory that needs to be developed. Habermas is the philosopher who developed this part most classically.Habermas is one of the most influential thinkers in western Marxism.Habermas is an encyclopedic scholar who has researched in various fields. He is highly accomplished and distinctive not only in philosophy, political science, but also linguistics and other fields. His theory includes transcendental philosophy, cognitive interest structure theory, hermeneutics and communicative action theory, and social function of science and technology etc. This paper focuses on the theory of communicative action, which Habermas for the first time raise it to the systematic, theoretical and highly centralized philosophy level. The communicative theory develops along with the postmodernism.Habermas’communicative action theory is aimed at post-capitalism social problems. Under the influence of the change of modern linguistic philosophy, it absorbed Marx’s communication theory, inherited and developed social critique to instrumental rationality of the first generation of Frankfurt scholars, and used scalpel of communicative rationality to diagnose problems in the process of social modernization.Habermas sets communicative action theory as the core, built the theory of negotiation ethics and social criticism whose core are intersubjectivity and linguistic communication. The theory of negotiation ethics and social criticism are the social application in communicative action theory. they not only analyze the new characteristics of modern capitalism, but also put forward the way to solve the problem.The dissertation includes introduction part, main body and epilogue. The introduction part gives a general introduction to Habermas, the relevant domestic research and the research methods. The main body includes four chapters.Chapter Ⅰ introduces the social background of late-capitalism interaction theory and Habermas’ communication theory. It is made up of sublation of the Weber’s rationality theory by habermas, influence by the thoughts of language philosophy and the critical absorption of Marx’s communication theory. Weber’s rationality concept is not only the source of the concept of Habermas’ communicative rationality, but also the critical object of Habermas’s communicative rationality. Language philosophy leads to the ascending to the core status of the whole theory. But the weakness is to be avoided. Marx’s theory of communication act is the discard of Habermas’object.Chapter Ⅱ elaborates the late-capitalism interaction theory and Habermas’ communication theory. Communication theory is a systematic exposition to the activities of communication, which with the logical deduction is the theoretical basis on which to build the communication. This Chapter is the basis of the dissertation including two parts. First part includes behavior and behavior effectiveness, world association and coordination mechanism. The second part includes communicative action rationality analysis. The first part analyzes communicative action effectiveness classification and various behavior standards from the intrinsic attribute and connects all kinds of behavior with the world, Finally it discussed the corresponding coordination mechanism of behavior. The second part illustrates the rationality of the existence of intercourse and the historical basis and necessity of its existence is the basis of communicative behavior to interdependence.Chapter III introduces Habermas’ communication theory, which is the result of spreading Habermas’ communication theory to the society. This part includes the negotiation ethics, moral development level, and social power significance of the moral knowledge learning. Negotiation ethics structure is the premise and basis theory of negotiation ethics. Moral development level and the social power significance of moral knowledge are marked out by the theoretical premise and base of the conclusion. Construction of communicative behavior of social criticism is the scalpel of discuss ethics. This part uses the theory of communicative action as the basis of social criticism to analyze social problems of the late capitalism society and put forward the solution to the problem.Chapter IV evaluates and analyzes the Habermas’s thoughts with both reasonable and unreasonable points. Modern western society is now in the stage of post-industrial society. Social practice is in the stage before and shows the important function. In the practice of the communication with the relationship between human and nature, it is mostly based on the processing of interpersonal relationship. In a sense, it marks the subject and object relations of material production mode of the service. And the object should be the inter subjectivity of interpersonal communication. In this sense, communicative alienation theory just adapt to the western industrial society appear new changes, and there is also a witness to China’s current national conditions. Evaluation significance lies in fostering the Habermas’s communication theory. Only in the way of selecting the essence of the theory can it comply with Marxism well.Epilogue is the summarized evaluation on Habermas’ communication theory.Like any other theories, Marx’s theory and Habermas’s communicative action theory are all have drawbacks. We can’t just blame them. We should adopt their good points and avoid their shortcomings. We should hold the critical and skeptical attitude towards them. Habermas’ communicative action theory is just as a diamond on the crown of social theory. To appreciate it and find the beauty of it can make our theoretical thinking more completely.Habermas’ communication theory, like a sharp knife, is a powerful weapon to criticize the late-capitalism social problems.