On Habermas's Criticism Of Marx's Concept Of Labor

Rationality has always been the focus of Habermas's attention,and it can be said that the starting point of Habermas's critique of Marx's labor is to re-grasp the ration.Since Marx Weber made a distinction between instrumental rationality and value rationality,Lukeqi,Horkheimer,and Adorno all along the path to start the criticism of instrumental rationality.But,in essence,because of the limitation of the "master-guest" binary thinking mode in philosophy of consciousness,they had failed to establish the value of rationality,and even embarked on a pessimistic path of suspecting and negating ration.In the face of the split of traditional reason,Habermas tries to bridge the traditional rationality with communicative rationality which based on the intercourse of inter-subjectivity,in order to get out of the inner predicament of consciousness philosophy.So Habermas traces the critical point back to Marx's concept of labor.Habermas finds that because Marx confused the labor and interaction(communication),put the communication under the concept of labor to research,which obscured the intrinsic value of communicative rationality.Therefore,Habermas proposes to distinguish strictly between labor and interaction,brings in the new paradigm of communication outside the production paradigm,replaces the basic position in the historical materialism of labor with communication,substitutes labor and interaction for productivity and production relations,and regards the rational process of social labor activities and communicative behavior's moral-practical activities as two different mechanisms of social evolution,to rebuild historical materialism.It has positive significance that Habermas attempts to introduce communicative rationality or practical rationality in the life world.But by examining Habermas's critique of concept of Marx's labor,it is not difficult to find out that it is in fact a misreading.Habermas inherited Kant's dichotomy of distinguishing theoretical rationality and practical rationality,understood Marx's concept of labor from consciousness philosophy,and regarded labor as the technological relationship between man and nature,while ignoring the essence of Marx's labor is a practical concept.Labor is not only an intermediary between human beings and nature,but also the basis of human society and history.Relying on labor,Marx understands the human existence and practical of social life,realizes great changes in the history of philosophy,and establishes historical materialism.From the critique thought of Habermas,grasping the essential differences between Habermas and Marx's understanding of labor,it is helpful for us to recognize Habermas's theoretical mistake and treat this critique correctly.At the same time,Habermas's mistake also reminds us to return to the original meaning of Marx's philosophical thoughts,understand the concept of labor in practice and correctly understand the historical materialism.