On Habermas' Theory Of Modernity

Habermas' theory of modernity occupies a significant position in modern philosophy discourse. Firstly, Habermas represents that modernity is a systematic project in economy, society, and culture fields. In addition, drawing on the history of modernity, Habermas elaborates a far-reaching point that pathologic symbols in western society don't show the modern enlightenment tradition to the dustbin of the history of ideas, 'progress' and 'freedom' failed or rationality exhausted. Coupled with this, his task is to overcome the pessimism of modernity from the indulgence of first heads at Frankfurt: Adorno and Horkheimer, resolve the dilemmas of subject-centered reason in the paradigm of communicative rationality. This paper introduces Habermas' theory of modernity from the four dimensions (historical research, language criticism, social criticism and life world criticism) according to the problems existed in present studies on Habermas' theory of modernity. Firstly, the paper focuses on the analysis of social criticism and life world criticism. About the dimension of social criticism, this paper researches the characteristics of the Habermas' theory of modernity thoroughly beyond the critical theory of Frankfurt school and stresses the characteristics of his self-reflection and self-criticism especially. About the dimension of life world criticism, the paper analyzes the pathological symbol between system and life world, advocates the reconstruction of "communicative rationality" to realize the life world rationalized and pays more attention to "procedure rationality".Then Habermas' entire work aims to defend and continue the enlightenment project against challenge of Horkheimer and Adorno (earlier critical theory) and Nietzscheanism in forms of anti-modernity(Foucault) and post-modernity(Lyotard). Habermas creates a self-reflection discourse of modernity, inherits and goes beyond the earlier critical theory of Frankfurt School. Habermas' theory of modernity makes a balance between theory and practice and finds a new way to solve social problems.