On Habermas’ Conversion Of Marx’s Category Of Labor

More than a century ago, Marx found the key to understand the history of mankind and social history in the investigation of the history of labor. So he called the society "the sun" revolving around labor. He constructed historical materialism with the category of labor as a logical starting point, constructed political economics theory foundation with the theory of labor value as the theoretical foundation, and finally constructed scientific socialism theory aiming at labor liberation on the base of historical materialism and the theory of surplus value. As it were, the category of labor is a red line throughout the theoretical system of Marx as well as the cornerstone of the theoretical building of Marx. However, since the second world war, great changes have taken place in the world. With the higher and higher speed of globalization and economic integration, the communication among countries, organizations and human becomes more and more frequent and widespread. On thes conditions. Habermas raises doubts about Marx’labor-centered theory or labor paradigm. He holds that nowadays the importance of communication has already exceeded that of labor.In this thesis, I explain Marx’s labor category, analyze the causes and mechanism of Habermas’s replacing Marx’s labor with his communication. And I analyze the positive and the limited sides of the transformation..