Modernity: An Incomplete Project by Jugen Habermas

1. With the advent of post-modernity, we are forced to revaluate the modernity.
2. The goal of enlightenment is to enrich the life world through reason. But quite contrarily what the reason gave birth to all aporias and pathological disease, personality disorders, “false totality” of the racial representation, ‘totally administered society’, terrorism, anti-Semitism, fascisms, environment degradation, commodity fetishism and so many other disadvantages caused by societal modernity (a capitalist modernization of economy and society)
3. Societal modernization has modernized economy and society with capitalist mode of production, while cultural modernization has created differentiation of cultural value domains-science, morality and art, governed by district claims to validity: truth, rightness and authenticity and embodying district rationality: cognitive-instrumental, moral-practical and aesthetic-expressive.
4. Each district segment of cultural modernity with its own district unquestionable brand of reason has given the birth of expert. Cultural, separating elitist (S) from the communicative domain of the public at large.
5. Habermas rebuts the old conservatives ‘attempt to escape into the nostalgia for premodernity the neo-conservatives’ attempt to impart’ religious faith through the awakening of substantive reason and young conservation’ attempt to jump into post-modernity, claiming that the solutions to the problems of modernity can be searched within it. Therefore, there is no reason to find an escape from it.
6. Habermass accepts that modernity has its discontents and be also accepts that the division of life-world has separated ones ethics, aesthetics and cognition.
7. Through the communicative rationality (not by any social movements), he wants to link these faculties. That means, Habermas’s communicative rationality assumes a person whose ethics, aesthetics and cognition because identical. That is, the person who can think, feel and judge at once as a single mental process.
8. Communicative rationality assumes that language has potential for the emancipator charge. Communicative act of language can provide norms for non-dominating relations to others. Instead of one-sided, instrumental reason-based on domination over others, Habermas’s reason is non-dominating and non-instrumental. Only such type of communicative rationality can limit the nemesis of the modern world.
9. For this, aesthetic should be given a new role-a role that can help to heal the division by drawing art near to the everyday praxis.
10. It is only art that has capacity for the social emancipation because there is possibility of mimesis-the non-identical relation to the object. And also because are discursive field ‘that takes place both in everyday interaction and institutionalized practices of argumentation is science, law and criticism. In other words, it is only in pure aesthetic realm, intersubjectively of communicative action is realized.

The Project of Enlightenment
    Modernity is rooted in the development of Enlightenment. Habermas talks of Max Weber’s separation of religion and metaphysics into three independent spheres. Science, morality and art. This division, Habermas says, ultimately gave space to three dimensions of culture, truth, morality and beauty, knowledge, justice and taste. Eventually, the project of Enlightenment aimed to develop these three aspects objective science, universal morality and low, and autonomous art. In addition, it hoped to free these domains from their own mysterious and obscure traps, and to utilize this specialized culture for the enrichment of everyday life. But unfortunately, in the twentieth century, this division-science, morality and art has vome to debase the autonomy itself and has created the problem. So it has attempted to negate the culture.

Negation of Culture
     The development of art in the 19th century encountered aestheticism i.e. art for art’s sake. Consequently, instead of color, lines, sounds and movement the media of expression and techniques of production themselves became the aesthetic object. this process of alienating art and life continued in the 20th century too. The more art alienated from life the more surrealist explosives forced a reconciliation art and life. But, these attempts to remove the distinction between art and life, artifact and object, appearance and reality, spontaneous and conscious experiments.
These attempts, through, have brought art closer to life, but unfortunately, have strengthened the structures, which the art is required to dissolve. This modernist and more specifically the surrealist attempt, Habermas calls are simply negating the art.

Alternatives
     Habermas consents that modernity has thus failed, however he refuses to abandon the project. Rather he insists on learning from the mistakes of those extravagant programs, which tried to negate modernity. So, the project of modernity should be continued to establish a connection between modern culture and everyday life. He says: the project of modernity has not yet fulfilled. And the reception of art is only one of at least three of its aspects. The project aims at a differentiated relining of modern culture with an everyday praxis that still depends on uital heritages, but would be impoverished through more traditionalism. (Haberns)
     Thus, Habermas expects to have been established this kind of linkage, but conversely for the near future he does not see very strong possibility of such connection.

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