Habermas was born on June 18, 1929 in the small town of Mersbach, near Cologne, Germany. He spent his teenage years under Nazi rule and World War II. In his lifetime, Habermas not only made sharp criticisms of many philosophers of his predecessors, such as Hegel, Marx, M. Weber, Heidegger, and Aldorno. Moreover, there have been fierce polemics with the famous contemporary theorists Gadamer, Foucault, Derrida, Bourdieu and others.
From 1949 to 1954, Habermas studied philosophy, psychology, history, German literature and economics at the University of Göttingen, the University of Zurich and the University of Bonn. From 1964 to 1971, Habermas was Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Frankfurt. In the mid-1960s, habermas published many political articles that had a huge impact on young students.
Jurgen Habermas inherited and developed Kant's philosophy, defended the "Enlightenment", called modernity an "unfinished project", proposed the famous theory of communicative rationality, and made a powerful critique of postmodernist ideas. One of Habermas's main beliefs in epistemology is that any knowledge originates from interest. He proposed three types of human interest: a. "Empirical-analytical scientific research" encompasses the cognitive purpose of technology; "The Scientific Study of History-Hermeneutics" encompasses the cognitive purpose of practice; Critically oriented scientific research, which encompasses liberating cognitive interests and correspondingly has three types of knowledge, denies the dominance of history-explanatory knowledge, empirical-analytical knowledge, and technological control of interests, creating a crisis in capitalist society. In order to overcome the crisis of motivation and trust, critical theory must pay attention to the process of interaction and communication, and only through communication action can it be possible to liberate human beings from domination. Habermas's doctrines of intellectual purpose, technological dominance, and communicative action have had a profound impact as a comprehensive theory of social criticism.
Pre-engagement period (1959-1968)
The subjects of study are historical analysis of the bourgeois public sphere and historical reconstruction of epistemology. Through his critique of positivism and historicism, Habermas proposed a critical concept of science.
Period of association (1969-1981)
From the perspective of reconstructing historical materialism, Habermas initially completed the establishment of his theoretical system of communicative behavior as a social critical theory.
Post-engagement period (1982-1989)
During this period, Habermas devoted himself primarily to the historical cleansing of the categories of modernity and the critique of metaphysical thought in order to resist postmodernism and to elaborate a "post-metaphysical thought" based on a linguistic turn, and to meta-argue the theory of communicative behavior from the perspectives of vertical (intellectual history) and horizontal (metaphysical critique).
Reflection Period (1990-2000)
In the 1990s, Habermas began to consciously promote the theory of communicative behavior into the field of political philosophy and legal philosophy, advocating the establishment of a new model of discursive politics through the criticism of liberal political essentials and communitarian political essentials, and advocating the use of proceduralism to rebuild democratic institutions. Habermas insisted that the underlying problems could be solved, and he was concerned with the development of the philosophical pillars of critical theory. This involves the reconstruction of a number of central propositions of classical Greek and German philosophy, the inseparability of truth and morality, the inseparability of facts and values, and the inseparability of theory and practice. His ultimate aim is to establish a framework structure that can incorporate a multitude of distinctly competing approaches in social science research, including ideological critique, theory of action, analysis of social institutions, and the theory of evolution.
Habermas's ideological characteristics are mainly manifested in the following aspects:
1, first of all, polemic. After Habermas entered the academic field, he constantly challenged various ideological lines and set off one academic controversy after another. It is worth paying attention to: the methodological dispute with Popper, Gadamer, etc.; Controversy with Foucault's modernity; A metaphysical struggle with Henrich; Controversy with the historiography of Nault and others; Controversy with Ruhmann's social theory, The struggle with Rawls' normative democracy, Genetic technology battle with Sloterdijack, etc.
2, followed by comprehensive. Habermas is an outstanding comprehensive master, he organically combines different ideological lines and theoretical categories, such as Marxism with spiritual lines and theoretical categories. For example, for the synthesis of Marxism and psychoanalysis, For the synthesis of the German idealistic philosophical tradition and the American pragmatic philosophical tradition, For the synthesis of philosophical transcendentalism and philosophical empiricism, etc.
3, and then there is the system. Habermas attaches great importance to the construction of his own theoretical system, and for a long time, he has gradually established and improved his own theoretical system of communicative behavior from the perspectives of methodology, epistemology, philosophy of language, sociology, aesthetics, political science, and law. An attempt was made to systematically reconstruct the critical theories of Marxism, especially the Frankfurt School, from a normative point of view.
4, and finally, there is practice. Although Habermas was an academic thinker, he attached great importance to the practicality of his ideas. Habermas's attempt to develop Marxism, especially his attempt to combine classical Marxist doctrine with the practice of late capitalist society, deserves our serious attention. For example, his thorough analysis of the crisis of legitimacy of late capitalism, For the reconstruction of historical materialism, For the historical sorting out of the category of the nation-state, as well as serious reflections on the arrangement of democratic institutions and the confirmation of citizenship in the context of globalization, It's all very enlightening.
Habermas is a representative of the second generation of the Frankfurt School, an important school of Western Marxism, with rich writings, and has published dozens of works so far, the main representative works include: Structural Changes in the Public Sphere Theory and Practice "Knowledge and Human Interest" Technology and Science as Ideology The Logic of the Social Sciences The Crisis of Legitimacy Culture and Criticism The Reconstruction of Historical Materialism Communication and Social Evolution The Theory of Communicative Action Truth and Argument "Embrace the Other" Facts and Values "Awareness and Interest" The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity The Theory of Communicative Behavior The Crisis of Legitimacy in Late Capitalism Post-Metaphysical Thought
The most basic contributions made by Jürgen Habermas are as follows: a historical discussion of the formation and disintegration of the public sphere (Yu Habermas, Structural Changes in Public Activity, 1962 German Edition), an examination of the place of modern science and technology in capitalist society (Yu Habermas, Knowledge and the Interests of Man (1968), 1971, Developing a philosophical framework for critical theory (Theory and Practice (1963), 1974 English edition; Towards a Reasonable Society (1968), 1970 English edition), Development of the Theory of Action (The Theory of Communication, 1981 German Edition), An analysis of the types of crises in capitalist society (The Crisis of Legitimacy) and the reconstruction of the theory of social evolution.