The theory of communicative action

Habermas's work between 1973 and 1983 may be seen to be primarily concerned to work out the implications of Legitimation Crisis. This entails the development of a theoretical reconstruction of the competences that people use in everyday communication: universal pragmatics. This takes its final form in the magisterial The Theory of Communicative Action. At the same time he is working out the ethical theory that is outlined in the final part of Legitimation Crisis. (A collection of essays on this theme was published in 1983.) As is perhaps unsurprising given the direct link between universal pragmatics and The Theory of Communicative Action, characterized as it is with a synoptic engagement with the grand…