Abstract:

To enhance its theoretical capacity to explain social evolution, Jurgen Habermas reinterprets historical materialism as well as its basic categories. He attempts to overcome the theoretical paradigm of speculative philosophy with his theory of communicative action, and thus provide a new perspective for grasping contemporary capitalist society. Although his critical theory shows some theoretical achievements in reconstructing historical materialism in the contemporary context, Habermas’ ideal communication mode constructed by language fails to go deep enough into the field of social being. Habermas misjudges that Marx’s concept of subject is still confined within the scope of cognitive subject because he could not completely move out the thinking paradigm of the immanence of consciousness. Moreover, neither does he understand that the subject can only be directed by perceptual activities, that is, the self-generation of the subject in perceptual activities, nor does he comprehend that it is through perceptual activities that the liberation of the subject can be realized. Therefore, Habermas’ concept of communicative subject constructed in his interpretation of Marx is still limited in the domain of consciousness and consequently fails to touch social reality.

Key words: Habermas, subject, perceptual activity, immanence of consciousness