Habermas and the problem of technology

Abstract

This paper examines the problem of technology in late capitalism from Habermas's perspective. It characterises the scientification of knowledge and technology, the annulment of freedom and the depoliticisation of the masses, which build a new form of alienation and exploitation of man. It proceeds from “Technology and Science as ‘Ideology’”, of 1968, written in dialogue with the critique of one-dimensional man and with the Weberian notion of rationalisation, and situates the proposal of a critical meta-hermeneutics in relation to the methodological and ontological strands of contemporary hermeneutics. It distinguishes the types of rational action present in contemporary societies, describes how science and technology come to operate as legitimation of domination and of the form assumed by capitalist society, and addresses the conversion of the political relation into a relation of production. It also presents the possibilities of overcoming the present crisis in the light of a new concept of reason, communicative reason, directed towards intersubjective understanding and human emancipation.