Reason,Action and Society—— Habermas's Three Analytic Dimensions to Modernity

Implemental reason and communicative reason,rationally implemental action and communicative action,system and life world are the basic categories of the three pairs of opposite concepts in Habermas's theory of communicative action.Habermas differentiated the implemental reason from communicative reason so as to interpret why the rational reason is possible and differentiated the rationally implemental action from communicative action so as to interpret why the social action is possible.Furthermore,he split the dual concept of society into the system and the life world,thus interpreting why the social order is possible.Grasping the interrelationship between the three pairs of categories and their developmental logic will benefit theoretically our understanding of the theme of the theory of communicative action,i.e.,the modernity is actually a plan to be completed.