Research On Habermas’ Theory Of Civil Society

Civil society has long been an important research object of Marxists.Habermas is the representative of the second generation of Frankfurt school.The theory of civil society is an important concept throughout his thought.He has been committed to the inheritance of Marxist critical theory and the reconstruction of modernity.This paper first analyzes Marx’s civil society theory,deeply interprets Habermas’ s civil society theory,deeply analyzes its situation in the realistic context of contemporary capitalism,and tries to find the emancipation purport and practical significance behind the theory.Through the comparison with Marx’s civil society theory,this paper reveals its utopian characteristics.The first chapter is the theoretical basis of Marx’s civil society.The concept of civil society can be traced back to ancient society.At that time,"civil society" roughly had the same meaning as political city-state.In modern society,the state and society have been separated from each other.Hegel believes that civil society refers to the private independent field of economic activities.Civil society is non ethical and needs the control of the state to realize the materialization of ethics;Through the triple criticism of civil society,Marx demonstrated that civil society determines the state,revealed the internal contradictions of civil society,and grasped the connotation of civil society.Chapter two is Habermas theory of civil society with the public sphere as the core.First,it analyzes the formation and development of the bourgeois public sphere,Reveal three different forms of public sphere development.According to different functions,the public sphere can be divided into literary public sphere and political public sphere.Then,it analyzes that the transformation of the public sphere leads to the legalization crisis of the late capitalist society.Finally,he put forward that the key to the reconstruction of the public sphere lies in the publicity of criticism and the play of public opinion.The third chapter examines Habermas theory of civil society with the life world as the core.Habermas constructed the system--the civil social analytical structure of life world.System refers to the economic system with money as the core and the political system with power as the core.The life world is the background hypothesis and "knowledge reservoir" of communicative behavior.The system plays the role of system integration,and the life world plays the role of social integration.The invasion of the system to the life world leads to the colonization of the life world,we should replace instrumental rationality with communicative rationality to make up the cracks in communicative behavior.Based on universal pragmatics in the interaction and rebuild the integrity of the life world.The fourth chapter analyze the practical dimension and contemporary situation of Habermas civil society,and Habermas’ s shortcomings and transcendence compared with Marx.Discourse democracy is the political practice of negotiation ethics.Habermas takes the EU as the realistic starting point.He believes that under the premise that the living world cannot provide value consensus,the establishment of European political integration must rely on the formulation of the European Constitution,and on this basis,the construction of the world community based on the European community.The reconciliation between American daily life and culture indicates the loss of the critical function of the public sphere.Habermas made a new thinking on the new round of transformation of the public sphere in the digital era.Finally,compared with Marx,Habermas’ theory of civil society has its inherent defects and Habermas’ inheritance of Marx’s theory of civil society.