The Theory of Communicative Action

Blurb

The Theory of Communicative Action is a 1981 book by Jürgen Habermas, in which he continues his project set out in On the Logic of the Social Sciences of finding a way to ground "the social sciences in a theory of language." The two volumes are Reason and the Rationalization of Society in which Habermas establishes a concept of communicative rationality, and Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason, in which Habermas creates the two level concept of society and lays out the critical theory for modernity. After writing The Theory of Communicative Action, Habermas expanded upon the theory of communicative action by using it as the basis of his theory of morality, democracy, and law. The work was the subject of a collection of critical essays published in 1986, has inspired many responses by social theorists and philosophers, and in 1998 was listed by the International Sociological Association as the eighth most important sociological book of the 20th century.