INTERSUBJECTIVITY AND CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS - REMARKS ON HABERMAS THEORY OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTION

The out-dated intentionalistic assumptions manifest in Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action undermine a solution to the problem of order in action theory beyond utilitarianism. An analysis of his intersubjectivistic conception, which is based on the theory of the speech-act, shows that the incompleteness of Habermas’s linguistic turn is due to his attempt to revive the older Critical Theory’s concept of critique. The claims for a scientifically well-founded revival of a universal concept of reason - which are asserted in this concept - invalidate the intersubjectivistic paradigm in action theory and therefore obstruct the way to a de-individualized formulation of the theory of social contract that avoids the paradox of utilitarian models. © 1991 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.