The Analysis Of Habermas’ Reconstruction Of Historical Materialism Theory

Habermas, as the leader of the second generation of Frankfurt school, not asthe older generation of Frankfurt school theorists, who "recovered" or "revived"historical materialism, but believes some conclusions of historical materialism are"outdated", and need innovation and adding in theory to reconstruct the historicalmaterialism. Based on the communicative action theory, Habermas rebuildshistorical materialism, which has a lot of one-sidedness.But he does have somemerit.This paper is divided into four parts to comb the Habermas’ reconstruction ofhistorical materialism and based on the analysis of the reconstruction theory of gainand loss to discuss its enlightenment and reference to us.The first part analyses from two aspects, explaining why Habermas’reconstruction of historical materialism. First of all, with the development of thesociety, new changes occur in the late capitalism society, which provides the erabackground for reconstruction of historical materialism; Secondly, the thought heldby those thinkers before Habermas and his contemporaries also offers theoreticalinspiration for his reconstruction of historical materialism theory.The second part mainly combs Habermas’ overall evaluation of historicalmaterialism. Habermas thinks that historical materialism is mainly applicable toexplain the social movement and the class conflict, but also has some limitations andcan not fully explains the social evolution.The third part from four aspects of the social base theory, the divisionstandard of social form, the driving force for the development of the society, and thesocial structure, analyses and sorts out Habermas’ reconstruction of historical materialism in detail, and tries to analyze the negative factors and positive aspectsin reconstruction of historical materialism objectively and rationally.The fourth part mainly mines for the theory and practical value of Habermas’reconstruction of historical materialism.