Jürgen Habermas and the normative shift in the statement of the autonomization of social spheres

The aim here is to single out the theory of communicative action as a normative shift in the statement of the autonomization of social spheres. The argument is structured in three stages: in a first, the habermasian understanding of the distinction between pre-modern and modern is presented as a transition from the undifferentiated to the differentiated, more particularly from the mythical reification to the uncoupling of system and lifeworld; in a second, it presents its definition of modern reification as systemic colonization of the lifeworld; finally, it demonstrates how his theory of dual rationalization is also an investigation of the foundations for a normative defense of decolonization/autonomization of the lifeworld as an emancipatory horizon, which will even lead him to abandon, in the course of his work, the very tradition of the critique of reification.

Keywords:
Rationalization theory; Autonomization of social spheres; Reification; Systemic colonization; Lifeworld’s decolonization