Towards a Rational Society

Abstract

In Towards a Rational Society, Habermas stated his commitment to the need for the subordination of technical rationality to a broader understanding of rationality discovered through democratic participation and communication.1 From the onset, he assumed that the problem of how to develop science and technology in society was to be solved by ensuring democratic institutions and structures mediate the rational development of scientific and technological progress. As a result of democratic mediation, the bounds of rationality will be progressively tested and developed, providing that scientists and technicians do not overstep the limits of their specialisation and people understand the cultural meaning and practical value of science and technology. In this way, science and technology can be developed freely as a means to discover the truth and improving technical systems, while also being subordinated to the democratic processes of deliberating shared cultural meanings and understandings in terms of lifeworld experiences. Habermas’ account of scientific and technical progress was consciously developed to support his theory of societal development. It was for this reason that he argued that the premises of social theory must be independent of the results of particular sciences and he was concerned with the use of scientific concepts and representations, such as those taken from theories of natural evolution, to explain society.2 Following on from his earlier work, Habermas’ analysis of the historical conditions and structures of the trajectories of scientific thought and practice was developed in order to explain them in terms of the moral and practical development of society.KeywordsShared VisionPolitical FreedomSocietal DevelopmentDemocratic ParticipationParticipatory DemocracyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.