The Way To Understanding:A Study On Habermas’ Theory Of Communicative Action

Habermas, who’s known as "the contemporary Hegel", is a well-known philosopher and sociologist in Germany today, is also a prolific intellect and the second leader of the Frankfurt School. His theory is extensive and profound, including philosophy, history, sociology, politics and law, etc. According to Habermas, his theory of communicative action has certain practical meanings, through the theory he can change the current world situation and make his dream of being an enlightened thinker come true. In1981, Habermas completed his creation of the book of the theory of communicative behavior with two volumes, which established his position in the field of current western philosophy and sociology. And in this thesis, the study on Habermas’ theory of communicative action mainly includes the following four parts.In the first part, the background in which Habermas’theory of communicative action is formed has been described in detail. It was in the late period of capitalism that the theory was formed, when the western philosophy was transforming from ideological philosophy to linguistic philosophy. And, the theoretical sources of his theory are respectively three. For one thing, Habermas is the leading figure of the contemporary western Marxism, so his theory would definitely be influenced by Marx’s concept of communication practice, which has great inspiration to Habermas’theory of communicative action. Secondly, Marx Weber, the great sociologist and economist in the contemporary western world together with his rationality theory, has great influence on Habermas’theory. Thirdly, Lukacs, the founder of the western Marxism, has influenced Habermas with his materialization theory. As a consequence, the Frankfurt School as well as its critical theory, has overwhelming effects on Habermas’ theory. Thus, it is on the basis of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, Habermas founded his theory of communicative action.The second part goes to the basic connotation of Habermas’ communicative action. In order to have a sound grasp of the theory, for one thing it is a need to define it from the point view of the history and the concept of communication; for another from the four core categories of communicative action as follows, the life world, the colonization of the life world, the rationality of communicative action and the rationalization of communicative action. The grasp of the connotation of the theory can help the readers have a sound understanding of the theory. In this section, the author mainly focuses on the interpretation of the core categories to make the theory much more comprehensibly understandable. In the third part the author intends to set some comments on the theory of communicative action. The comments are made from two ways, first to analyze comparatively, and second to differentiate and analyze Habermas’theory of communicative action, Thus, in this part, the author has paid close attention to the comments and analysis of the theory, so as to facilitate our understanding of it.In the fourth part, the reflections of Habermas’communicative action have been discussed from three perspectives respectively, firstly, reflections of Habermas’theory of communicative action on the contemporary individuals; secondly, reflections on the society and finally reflections on the whole world.