Abstract

VARGAS CAMPOS, Ronulfo. The system-lifeworld coupling imperative in Jürgen Habermas apropos his critique of Talcott Parsons. Comunicación [online]. 2021, vol.30, n.1, pp.17-32. ISSN 1659-3820.

This article is an analytical review of Jürgen Habermas’ critical reading of Talcott Parsons’ functionalist sociology, stemming from Habermas’ concerns for a social theory to provide a substantial account of intersubjective interactions within social structures or systems. Habermas is particularly concerned with the development of a conceptual corpus to resolve the controversy between autonomous social action and the behavioral patterns emanating from institutional frameworks that tend to move social interaction toward self-preservation as an imperative, while simultaneously in detriment of Lebenswelt’s imperative of the good life. In this sense, Habermas’ effort to criticize Parsonian sociology while integrating its elements into a more comprehensive social theory is inscribed in the understanding of Critical Theory as emancipatory knowledge. The author of this article subscribes to this understanding, aiming to uphold the view of a lingering issue in a contemporary globalized world under the conditions of systemic organization and its conflictive consequences for citizenship.

Keywords : Ideology; philosophy; sociology; social theory; society; life.

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