Research On The Reconstruction Of Habermas' Historical Materialis

Habermas is one of the representative figures of the Frankfurt School,whose social-critical theory exposes the new features of the development of late capitalism at a deeper level.He proposes to use Marx’s historical materialist methodology to guide the world of human life and proposes a reconstruction of this classical theory to accommodate the new developments.Habermas points out that reconstruction is not a total rejection or abandonment of Marx’s historical materialism but a reassembling and reinterpretation of the original theory in a new form to stimulate a new vitality and vigor of historical materialism.The primary purpose of Habermas’ s reconstruction is that he believes that the social crisis has transformed from a single economic crisis to a systemic crisis of politics,economy,and culture in the late capitalist period and that the widespread application of scientific knowledge and the rapid development of technology has brought about an unprecedented increase in productivity,which at the same time will lead to a new ideology,that is,technology controls the life of the masses,and people lose their subjectivity under the hostage of technology.Secondly,Habermas believes that historical materialism has gradually deviated from Marx in its long-term interpretation and application and has been misinterpreted as economic determinism.Finally,he believes that Marx’s historical materialism still has significant value and can provide direction for future socialist evolution.Therefore,Habermas believes that a revision of historical materialism is imminent.By introducing the central concept of communicative action,Habermas attempted to reconstruct historical materialism by replacing the original framework of social evolution theory under the production paradigm with labor and interaction.Habermas reconstructs the social basis,social dynamics,and historical phasing of historical materialism through the theory of communicative action,the theory of social evolution,and the principle of social organization,respectively.In terms of content,Habermas misinterprets Marx’s historical materialism and fails to truly understand Marx’s theory of the fundamental contradictions of society and the theory of labor value,and also abandons historical materialism’s assertion of the nature of man.The essence of Habermas’ s "reconstruction theory" is to reconstruct the foundation of society with language as the core,with the tendency of idealism and cultural determinism,which ultimately deviates from Marx’s materialistic view of history.Based on the book Zur Rekonstruktion des Historischen Materialismus and the principal works of Habermas,such as The Theory of Communicative Action and Communication and the Evolution of Society,this paper discusses why and how Habermas reconstructs historical materialism and whether he misinterprets Marx’s materialistic view of history,and explores its inner theoretical connection and logical progression.It also examines how Habermas’ s reconstructionism deviates from Marxism based on a deeper understanding of Marx’s historical materialism.The paper begins with an overview of the background and significance of the selected topic and the current status of related research at home and abroad.Then it proceeds to research and discussion on this basis.The research is divided into four parts.The first chapter discusses the background of Habermas’ s reconstruction in the late capitalist social environment,expounds Habermas’ s views and thoughts on the new social crisis and the development path of Marxist theory,and clarifies the realistic background and theoretical foundation of Habermas’ s reconstruction theory.The second chapter discusses Habermas’ s understanding of Marx’s historical materialism,as well as Habermas’ s criticism of historical materialism in general and his specific criticism of the concept of social labor and the historical concept of class,and explains the reasons for Habermas’ s historical materialist reconstruction theory and the problems his reconstruction theory needs to solve.Chapter 3 first introduces Habermas’ s core concept of the communicative action and expands on the content of Habermas’ s reconstruction theory in detail from three aspects: the reconstruction of social foundations,the reconstruction of social dynamics,and the reconstruction of historical phasing.Chapter 4 evaluates Habermas’ s reconstructive historical materialism,affirming the valuable elements of the theory on the one hand and critically discussing the limitations of Habermas’ s reconstructive historical materialist theory on the other.Ultimately,it is concluded that Habermas’ s reconstruction of historical materialism with the communicative action as its kernel is a fundamental departure from the Marxist position and a misreading of historical materialism.Marx’s theory of historical materialism is still relevant and still has new vitality in the present.