Habermas Commentary/Books/TCA1
< Habermas Commentary | Books
Page-by-page commentary on Jürgen Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society
copyright 1981 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
translated by Thomas McCarthy
published 1984 by Beacon Press (Boston)
Introduction: Approaches to the Problem of Rationality edit
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Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 1 Introduction to Habermas's writing style. 2 3 Learning as an internally reconstructible sequence of stages of competence. 4 5 6 7
"Rationality" -- A Preliminary Specification edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 8 9 Objective judgment. 10 11 Distinction between realist and phenomenological approaches. 12 13 14 Intersubjective understanding. 15 Communicative rationality within a communication community. 16 17 Critique of Wittgenstein’s rules, as used by Habermas. 18 Argumentation vs. force. Strategic and communicative action. Grounding is interwoven with learning. 19 Redeeming validity claims. 20 Cultural values, norms of action, and claims to universality. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Warranted and unwarranted consensually achieved decisions. 36 37 38 39 40 Heuristic value of lower-level validity claims. 41 42
Some Characteristics of the Mythical and the Modern Ways of Understanding the World edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74
Relations to the World and Aspects of Rationality in Four Sociological Concepts of Action edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 75 76 77 Popper's third world. 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101
The Problem of Understanding Meaning in the Social Sciences edit
Max Weber's Theory of Rationalization edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156
Occidental Rationalism edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185
The Disenchantment of Religious-Metaphysical Worldviews and the Emergence of Modern Structures of Consciousness edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215
Modernization as Societal Rationalization: The Role of the Protestant Ethic edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242
The Rationalization of Law: Weber's Diagnosis of the Times edit
Intermediate Reflections: Social Action, Purposive Activity, and Communication edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338
From Lukacs to Adorno: Rationalization as Reification edit
Max Weber in the Tradition of Western Marxism edit
Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365