Critical Hermeneutics versus Neoparsonianism?

Abstract

This essay aims at the restoration of a central feature of Habermas' social theory, most clearly articulated in his writings preceding his incorporation of sociological systems-theory into the design of a critical theory of late captialist societies and also preceding his programmatic essays on the reconstruction of historical materialism and on the theory of language (universal pragmatics).2 The feature in question is the claim that a critical theory of society is to be a theory which can be practically enlightening. I understand this claim to mean that the ultimate test for the validity of a critical theory of society consists in the possibility of the incorporation of its insights into practically consequential interpretations of social situations. A critical theory of society is a theory which cannot control the determination of the validity of its insights, simply by referring to standards of theoretical cogency, and of conceptual and explanatory adequacy. In the final analysis, its truth can only be ascertained if relevant groups in the society can integrate its claims into their practical deliberation, carried out under conditions of the need to act, and thus transform theoretical insights into practically consequential interpretations of their situation.s Habermas' Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns (both