Toward a Rational Society - Student Protest, Science, and Politics

Universities must transmit technically exploitable knowledge. That is, they must meet an industrial society's need for qualified new generations and at the same time be concerned with the expanded reproduction of education itself. In addition, universities must not only transmit technically exploitable knowledge, but also produce it. This includes both information flowing from research into the channels of industrial utilization, armament, and social welfare, and advisory knowledge that enters into strategies of administration, government, and other decision-making powers, such as private enterprises. Thus, through instruction and research the university is immediately connected with functions of the economic process.

List of contents

Translator's Preface vii
Chapter One: The University in a Democracy-Democratization of the University 1
Chapter Two: Student Protest in the Federal Republic of Germany 13
Chapter Three: The Movement in Germany: A Critical Analysis 31
Three Intentions
First Justification: The Theory of Imperialism
Second Justification: Neoanarchism
Third Justification: Cultural Revolution
The Actual Results
The Source of the Protest Potential
What Is to Be Done?
Chapter Four: Technical Progress and the Social Life-World 50
Chapter Five: The Scientization of Politics and Public Opinion 62
Chapter Six: Technology and Science as "Ideology" 81
Notes 123
Index 129

About the author

Jürgen Habermas is a German philosopher and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theories on communicative rationality and the public sphere. In 2014, Prospect readers chose Habermas as one of their favourites among the "world's leading thinkers". Jeremy J. Shapiro, is an American academic, a professor at Fielding Graduate University who works in the area of critical social theory with emphasis on the social and cultural effects of information technology and systems, social change, and the aesthetics of music.

Product details

• Authors: Habermas, J Habermas, J. Rgen Habermas, J?rgen Habermas, Jurgen Habermas, Jürgen Habermas, Jurgen (Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt) Habermas
• Assisted by: Jeremy J Shapiro (Translation), Jeremy J. Shapiro (Translation)
• Publisher: Polity Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.1991
• EAN: 9780435823818
• ISBN: 978-0-435-82381-8
• No. of pages: 144
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 216 mm x 8 mm
• Weight: 172 g
• Series: Student Protest, Science and P; Student Protest, Science and P
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Education system; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Soziologie, Hochschulbildung, Fort- und Weiterbildung, Sociology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, EDUCATION / Higher, EDUCATION / Student Life & Student Affairs