Interaction Theory: Behavioral Full Rationality and Social Rationalization: Behavioral Full Rationality and Social Rationalization

Author: Habermas
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: The Theory of Communicative Action is a work with a remarkably broad scope. In this book, Max Weber (MaxWeber) occupies a more prominent position, and the interpretive material is more concentrated on the conceptual schema of Habermas's own thought. At the beginning of the book, Habermas claims that the Theory of Communicative Action is neither a meta-theory nor a continuation of epistemology through other means. The analysis of the Theory of Communicative Action connects us to three forms of rationality related to social analysis: one involves the rationality of argumentation in hermeneutics and analytic philosophy, particularly concerning the issue of relativism. If different cultures or lifestyles have their own intrinsic standards of rationality, then in what sense can they be compared according to universal standards and subjected to criticism? The other involves the rationality of action, i.e., how to grasp the special significance in human behavior? This touches on the problem of understanding and also on the task of social sciences in claiming better explanations when the actors themselves have already set reasons for their behavior. The last is the issue of the social expansion of rationality, i.e., the rationalization problem specific to modern Western society. Most of the book's efforts are dedicated to this. Habermas asserts: rationality is more closely related to the way knowledge is used than to knowledge itself. If we believe that it is reasonable to talk about something in certain contexts, then it either refers to the recognition expressed by people or to the symbolic expression forms that contain recognition. When we say that someone acts rationally or that a statement is reasonable, we actually mean that the behavior or statement can be criticized or defended by certain relevant people, and this is precisely what they do to prove themselves justified or well-founded. We cannot, like empiricists, limit the scope of rational behavior and the understanding of the objective world. We must use the concept of "communicative rationality" to supplement the shortcomings of "instrumental cognitive rationality." As Habermas himself said, rationality means communication, because only when something meets the necessary conditions for mutual understanding with at least one other person can it be considered rational.