Habermas on theory and political practice

Peter R. Stirk

pp. 97-115

in: Mark Cowling, Paul Reynolds (eds), Marxism, the millennium and beyond, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000

Abstract

Its opposition to the traditional concept of theory springs in general from a difference not so much of objects as of subjects … The scholarly specialist ‘as’ scientist regards social reality as extrinsic to him, and ‘as’ citizen exercises his interest in them through political articles, membership in political parties or social service organizations, and participation in elections. But he does not unify these two activities … except, at best, by psychological interpretation. Critical thinking, on the contrary, is motivated today by the effort really to transcend the tension between the individual’s purposefulness, spontaneity and rationality, and those work relationships on which society is built. (Max Horkheimer)1

Cited authors

Horkheimer Max

Habermas Jürgen