Chapter1: Introduction: Sociological Theory

THE CRITIQUE OF SCIENCE

In The Logic of the social Sciences and Knowledge and Human interest, Habermas analyzes systems of knowledge in an effort to elaborate a framework for critical theory~ The ultimate goal of tins analysis is to establish the fact that science is but one type of knowledge that exists to meet only set of human interests. To realize tins goal, Habermas posits three basic types of knowledge that encompass the full range of human reason: (1) There is empirical/analytic knowledge, which is concerned with understanding the lawful properties of the material world. (2) There is hermeneutic/historical knowledge, which is devoted to the understanding of meanings, especially through the interpretations of historical texts. (3) There is critical knowledge, which is devoted to uncovering conditions of constraint and domination. These three types of knowledge reflect three basic types of human interests: (1) a technical interest in the reproduction of existence through control of the environment, (2) a practical interest in understanding the meaning of situations, and (3) an emancipatory interest in freedom for growth and improvement. Such interests reside not in individuals but in more general imperatives for reproduction, meaning, and freedom that presumably are built into the species as it has become organized into societies, These three interests create, therefore, three types of knowledge. The interest in material reproduction has produced science or empirical/analytic knowledge; the interest in understanding of meaning has led to the development of hermeneutic/historical knowledge; and the interest in freedom has required the development of critical theory.

These interests in technical control, practical understanding, and emancipation generate different types of knowledge through three types of media: (1) "work" for realizing interests in technical control through the development of empirical/analytic knowledge, (2) "language" for realizing practical interests in understanding through hermeneutic knowledge, and (3) "authority" for realizing interests in emancipation through the development of critical theory There is a kind of functionalism in this analysis: needs for "material survival and social reproduction," for "continuity of society through interpretive understanding," and for "utopian fulfillment" create interests. Then, through the media of work, language, and authority" these needs produce three types of knowledge: the scientific, hermeneutical, and critical.

Table 11.1Types of Knowledge, Interests,Media (and Functional Needs)

Functional Needs Interests Knowledge Media

Material survival and technical control of empirical/analytic work

social reproduction the environment, knowledge, which is

generate pressures which leads to the achieved through

for development of

Continuity of social practical under- hermeneutic and language

relations generates standing through historical

pressures for interpretations of knowledge, which is

other's subjective achieved through

states, which leads to

the development of

Desires for utopian emancipation from critical theory, which authority

fulfillment generate unnecessary is achieved through

pressures for domination, which

leads to the

development of

This kind of typologizing is, of course, reminiscent of Weber and is the vehicle through which Habermas~ makes the central point: Positivism and the search for natural laws constitute only one type of knowledge, although the historical trend has been for the empirical/analytic to dominate the other types of knowledge. Interests in technical control through work and the development of science have dominated the interests in understanding and emancipation. And so, if social life seems meaningless and cold, it is because technical interests in producing science have dictated what kind of knowledge is permissible and legitimate. Thus Weber's "rationalization thesis" is restated with the typological distinction among interest, knowledge, and media. Table11 .1 summarizes Habermas's argument.

This typology allowed Habermas to achieve several goals. First, he attacked the assumption that science is value free because, like all knowledge, it is attached to a set of interests, Second, he revised the Weberian thesis of rationalization in such a way that it dictates a renewed emphasis on hermeneutics and criticism. These other two types of knowledge are being driven out by empirical/analytic knowledge, or science. Therefore it is necessary to reemphasize these neglected types of knowledge. Third, by viewing positivism in the social sciences as a type of empirical/analytic knowledge, Habermas associated it with human interests in technical control. He therefore visualized social science as a tool of economic and political interests. Science thus becomes an ideology; actually, Habermas sees it as the underlying cause of the legitimation crises of advanced capitalist societies (more on this shortly). In distressing positivism in this way, he oriented his own project to hermeneutics with a critical twist. That is, he visualized the major task of critical theory as the analysis of those processes by which people achieve interpretative understanding of one another in ways that give social life a sense of continuity. Increasingly, Habermas came to focus on the communicative processes among actors as the theoretical core for critical theorizing. Goals of emancipation cannot be realized without knowledge about how people interact and communicate. Such an emphasis represents a restatement in a new guise of Habermas's early analysis of the public sphere, but now the process of public discourse and debate is viewed as the essence of human interaction in general. Moreover, to understand interaction, it is necessary to analyze language and linguistic processes among individuals. Knowledge of these processes can, in turn, give critical theory a firm conceptual basis from which to launch a critique of society and to suggest paths for the emancipation of individuals. Yet, to justify this emphasis on hermeneutics and criticism, Habermas must first analyze the crises of capitalist societies through the overextension of empirical/analytic systems of knowledge.