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Habermas, J. "Theorie des kommunikativen
Handelns", trans. McCarthy, T. (1987) "The theory of communicative action:
vol 2, lifeworld and system, a critique of functionalist reason", Polity,
Cambridge
Analytical Table of Contents
Volume 1. Reason and the Rationalization of Society
Translator's introduction
Author's Preface
I. Introduction: Approaches to the Problem of Rationality
Preliminary Observations on the Concept of Rationality in Sociology
1. "Rationality" - A Preliminary Specification
A. The Critizability of Actions and Assertions
B. The Spectrum of Critizable Utterances
C. An Excursus on the Theory of Argumentation
Argumentation as Process, Proceedure, and Product - Internal vs. External
Perspective - Forms and Fields of Argument - Validity Claims and Types of
Argumentation
2. Some Characteristics of the Mythical and the Modern Ways of Understanding
the World
A. Godelier's Account of the Structures of the Mythical Understanding of the
World
B. The Differentiation of Object Domains vs. the Differentiation of Worlds
C. The Rationality Debates Sparked by Winch: Arguments for and against a
Universalistic Position
D. The Decentration of Worldviews (Piaget): Provisional Introduction of the
Concept of the Lifeworld
3. Relations to the World and Aspects of Rationality in Four Sociological
Concepts of Action
A. Popper's Theory of the Three Worlds and Jarvie's Application of It to the
Theory of Action
B. Three Concepts of Action Differentiated according to Their Actor-World
Relations
(a) Teleological (Strategic) Action: Actor-Objective World
(b) Normatively Regulated Action: Actor-Social and Objective Worlds
(c) Dramaturgical Action: Actor-Subjective and -Objective Worlds (including
social concepts)
C. Provisional Introduction of the Concept of Communicative Action
(a) Remarks on the Character of Independent Actions (Actions - Bodily Movements -
Operations)
(b) Reflexive Relations to the World in Communicative Action
4. The Problem of Understanding Meaning in the Social Sciences
II. Max Weber's Theory of Rationalization
III. Intermediated Reflections: Social Action, Purposive Activity, and
Communication
IV. From Lukacs to Adorno: Rationalization as Reification
Volume 2. Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason
Translator's Preface
V. The Paradigm Shift in Mead and Durkheim: From Purposive Activity to
Communicative Action
1. The Foundations of Social Science in the Theory of Communication
A. The Question behind Mead's Theory of Communication
B. The Transition from Subhuman Interaction Mediated by Gestures to
Symbolically Mediated Interaction: Taking the Attitude of the Other
C. Excursus: Using Wittegenstein's Concept of Following a Rule to
Make Mead's Theory of Meaning More Precise
D. The Transition from Symbolically Mediatied to Normatively Guided
Interaction (Role Behaviour)
E. The Complementary Construction of the Social and Subject Worlds
(a) Propositions and the Perception of Things
(b) Norms and Role Behaviour
(c) Identity and Need
2. The Authority of the Sacred and the Normative Background of
Communiative Action
3. The Rational Structure of the Linguistification of the Sacred
VI. Intermediate Reflections: System and Lifeworld
1. The Concept of the Lifeworld and the Hermeneutic Idealism of
Interpretive Sociology
2. The Uncoupling of System and Lifeworld
VII. Talcott Parsons: Problems in Constructing a Theory of Society
1. From a Normativistic Theory of Action to a Systems Theory of Society
2. The Development of Systems Theory
3. The Theory of Modernity
VIII. Concluding Reflections: From Parsons via Weber to Marx
1. A Backward Glance: Weber's Theory of Modernity
2. Marx and the Thesis of Internal Colonization
3. The Tasks of a Critical Theory of Society
Created 27/9/98
Modified 28/10/98