Abstract
Habermas’s article ‘Erläuterungen zum Begriff des kommunikativen Handelns ’ summarises, I would argue, some parts of a complete social theory which would also include a functional theory of objectified systems. This social theory, which attempts to decode the relations between everyday life and social systems in one sweep (Habermas, 1981, II, pp. 257f.), claims to be very comprehensive, i.e. to allow both, an analysis of elementary interactions and an investigation of extremely complex societies. In two major ways, I find this theory unconvincing: Firstly, Habermas’s theory neglects important aspects and structural indices of elementary interaction. Secondly, it precipitately excludes action theory explanations from its analysis of objectified systems.
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© 1985 D. Reidel Publishing Company
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Haferkamp, H. (1985). Critique of Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action. In: Seebass, G., Tuomela, R. (eds) Social Action. Theory and Decision Library, vol 43. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5263-8_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5263-8_14
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