On Habermas' Lifeworld Theory

Habermas is the core figure of the 2nd generation of German Frankfurt school. He came to a result with the communicative rationality that the root of various crisis in late capitalist society was one-sided rationalization. Due to high profile,the independent requirements of economic and politic systems under instrumental rationality invaded the other side of the society structure,which is the central of lifeworld leading to colonization. The colonization made money and power as the communication means instead of languages , and the evaluation standard turned into money and power,which led many crisis,such as the lost of meaning and validity,etc.. Some research of the root,content,contribution and limitation of Habermas's lifeworld theory,and the inspiration to our country were made in this thesis. It was supposed to provide some reference for modernization construction of our country. in 2007 the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis led to the global financial crisis .it has greatly affected over the world, Habermas thought that the financial crisis was the result of colonization of life world, so that made his lifeworld theory renewed attention of scholars home and abroad.Lifeworld is a basic concept in Western philosophy, Husserl who is the founder of phenomenology for saving the crisis in the 20th century European science made this concept in the context of phenomenology. After that Habermas draws on theories of Husserl, Schutz and others ideas, and presented his unique theory of lifeworld theory. In Habermas's theoretical system lifeworld theory is in the core position. Habermas criticized and analyzed cultural crisis in modern society and survival the dilemma through this theory. And he also gave deep attention on the living conditions of human society.This article has three parts. The first part describes main source of his lifeworld theory like Husserl's lifeworld theory, Schutz's lifeworld theory, Weber's theory of rationality and the early Frankfurt School on rational criticism, etc.; The second part describes the basic views of his lifeword, lifeworld and communicative action, the relationship between lifeworld and system, and rationalization of life world; The third part mainly on Habermas life-world evaluations of this theory, including the theoretical significances, the practical significances for China, in response to the financial crisis and theoretical limitations.Studying his lifeworld theory, we could further understand this theory. Studying lifeworld theory of Habermas is quite mature in China, but mainly in the nineties of the 20th century. With the progress of our society, economic development and thought maturity in this theory, there ares some different views, and study again his lifeworld theory we could prevent the financial crisis and provide some reference in resolution of this issue. But it also has some value for our harmonious society in the initial stage of socialist.