On Habermas' Reconstruction Of Modernity

Habermas's theory of modernity has become a controversial focus within western philosophy academy. Within numerous contemporary thoughts of post-modernity, Habermas uniquely proposed that modernity is an unfinished achievement, and called for modernity reconstruction to give a plenty exploration of the potential of modernity. This paper attempts to exploit a discussion around Habermas's modernity reconstruction.In the paper, an inference on Paradox of Modernity and Habermas diagnosis on modernity is introduced from the origin of modernity. Habermas considers that modernity should not be given up as an achievement in philosophy, and it needs new methodology and strength to reconstruct the modernity. In Chapter 3, Habermas philosophy of the modernity is analyzed from its inside meaning, i.e., the reconstruction of communication rationality. Habermas considers that the completion of the heuristic modernity scheme, e.g., the unification of three major values and the rational integration of the whole society, largely depends on the reconstruction of communication validity. Communication validity reflects in that people's interactive behaviour by language and mutual understanding. Therefore, the philosophy about the research on communicative rationality becomes a philosophy of language, referred by Habermas as formal linguistics. In his view, people's usual contacts always embodied the triple relationship among the subjective and the objective, the subjective and the subjective, the subjective and its egoism. It intrinsically refers to the authenticity, the formal validity, and the expression genuineness. On the other side, beyond the basis of communicative behaviour, people can establish a shared acknowledgement on social behaviour rules and values by communicative discussions. The common recognition of the preclusion of discrepancy and occlusion can be achieved among the subjective individuals, based on the vast common background belief within the routine life, which forms the whole living world. However, the core problem in the connection between modernity in philosophy and modernity in social problems is how to realize the communicative rationality in social practices. This forms an interesting topic for communication ethics. With this vision, Habermas proposed the common rule and the communication rule of the communicative rationality. In Chapter 4, the Habermas and Marx's commucative theory and social evolution theory are contrasted with each other, and give a panorama viewpoint over their advantages and limitations of two philosophy systems, and supply referential advices for the modernization process of China.