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On the Logic of the Social Sciences Books by Jiirgen Habermas included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought On the Logic of the Social Thomas McCarthy, general editor Sciences Jiirgen Habermas, Between Facts and Nonns: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy Jiirgen Habermas, Justification and Application: Remarks on Discourse Ethics JUrgen Habermas, On the Logic of the Social Sciences Jiirgen Habermas, The Inclusion of the Other: Studies in Political Theory Jiirgen Habermas, The Liberating Power of Symbols: Philosophical Essays Jiirgen Habermas, Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action Jiirgen Habermas, The New Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians' Debate Jiirgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures Jiirgen Habermas, Philosophical-Political Profiles Jiirgen Habermas Jiirgen Habermas, Postmetaphysical Thinking: Philosophical Essays Jiirgen Habermas, The Postnational Constellation: Political Essays translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen Jiirgen Habermas, On the Pragmatics of Communication Jiirgen Habermas, On the Pragmatics of Social Interaction: Preliminary Studies and Jerry A. Stark in the Theory of Communicative Action Jiirgen Habermas, The Structural Transfonnation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society Jiirgen Habermas, editor, Observations on liThe Spiritual Situation of the Age" The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts Contents This translation copyright © 1988 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Introduction by Thomas McCarthy vii This work originally appeared in German as a special supplemental volume of the journal Translator's Note Xl Philosophische Runt/schau in February 1967. It was published in book form in the volume entitled Zur Logik der So;;ialwissenschaften, © 1970 Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Preface Xlll Federal Republic of Germany. I The Dualism of the Natural and Cultural Sciences All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. A Historical Reconstruction 3 Printed and bound in the United States 2 Sociology and History: The Contemporary of America by Maple-Vail, Inc. Discussion 16 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data D On the Methodology of General Theories of Habermas, J iirgen. Social Action 43 [Zur Logik der Sozialwissenschaften. English 1 On the logic of the social sciences/Jiirgen Habermas; translated by Shierry Weber Nicholsen 3 Normative-Analytic and Empirical-Analytic and Jerry A. Stark. Approaches to Social Science 45 p. cm.-(Studies in contemporary German social thought) Translation of: Zur Logik der Sozialwissenschaften. 4 Intentional Action and Stimulus-Response Behavior 53 "Originally appeared in German as a special supplemental volume of the journal Philosophische Rundschau in February 1967"-CIP t.p. verso. 5 Three Forms of Functionalism 74 Bibliography: p. Includes index. m On the Problem of Understanding Meaning in ISBN 0-262-08177-6 (hb) ISBN 0-262-58104-3 (pb) the Empirical-Analytic Sciences of Action 89 I. Social sciences-Methodology. I. Title. II. Series. H6J.H25131988 300'. 72-dcI 9 88-583 6 The Phenomenological Approach 92 10987 7 The Linguistic Approach 117 8 The Hermeneutic Approach 143 vi Contents IV Sociology as Theory of the Present 171 Introduction 9 The Limits of Linguistically Oriented Interpretive 175 Sociology Thomas McCarthy 10 Open Questions 186 Notes 190 Index 209 When it first appeared in 1967, On the Logic rifthe Social Sciences chal­ lenged the existing division of labor between the sciences and the humanities: "While the natural sciences and the humanities are able to live side by side, in mutual indifference if not in mutual admira­ tion, the social sciences must resolve the tension between the two approaches and bring them under one roo£ H At that time discussions of the methodology of science were still dominated by logical posi tiv­ ism. Kuhn's pathbreaking work, published a few years earlier, had only begun to make itself feIt among philosophers of natural science; in the philosophy of social science it was, and was to remain for some time to come, only a distant rumbling. Thus Habermas's main concern was to challenge the hegemony of "empirical-analytical" conceptions of social science, to show, in particular, that access to the symbolically structured object domain of social inquiry called for procedures similar in important respects to those developed in the text-interpreting humanities. In making this point, he was already able to draw upon insights developed in the phenomeno­ logical (Schutz), ethnomethodological (Garfinkel, Cicourel), linguis­ tic (Wittgenstein, Winch), and hermeneutic (Gadamer) traditions, and on this basis to mount an argument that anticipated in all essential respects the subsequent decline of positivism and rise of interpretivism. If this were all there were to the story, On the Logic rif the Social Sciences would be primarily of historical interest as a striking antici­ pation of contemporary developments. But there is more. Habermas argued just as forcefully against swinging to the opposite extreme of "hermeneutic idealism," which has since achieved something of viii ix Introduction Introduction a counterhegemony in the philosophy of social science (but not, of And yet, Habermas maintains, they were unable to grasp the meth­ i course, in the practice of social research). The point was-and is­ odological specificity of such a theoretically informed and practi­ '! to bring explanatory and interpretive approaches "under one cally oriented history; instead, they tried repeatedly, and in vain, to roof," as Max Weber had already seen. Thus we have here not only assimilate it to the strictly nomological sciences of nature. an anticipation of the retreat of positivism, but a critique-in­ Habermas finds in psychoanalysis the most suggestive model advance of the absolutizing of interpretive approaches that fol­ for reconceptualizing and reintegrating the explanatory and inter­ lowed. If social research is not to be restricted to explicating, recon­ pretive, functionalist and narrative elements required for social structing, and deconstructing meanings, we must somehow grasp theory. Anticipating the extended discussion of Freud in Knowledge the objective interconnections of social actions, the "meanings" and Human Interests (which was published in the following year), they have beyond those intended by actors or embedded in tradi­ he views psychoanalytic theory as a general interpretive scheme of tions. We must, in short, view culture in relation to the material psychodynamic development, whose application to the narrative conditions oflife and their historical transformation. reconstruction of individual life histories calls for a peculiar combi­ With this in mind, Habermas goes on here to examine func­ nation of interpretive understanding and causal explanation, and tionalist 'approaches, in particular, the structural-functionalism of whose corroboration depends in the last analysis on the successful Talcott Parsons. He finds that the attempt to conceive of the social continuation of those same life histories. In an analogous way, criti­ system as a functional complex of institutions in which cultural pat­ cal social theory undertakes a narrative reconstruction of the self­ terns are made normatively binding for action does furnish us with formative process of society, with a view to its successful continua­ important tools for analyzing objective interconnections of action; tion: "In place of the goal-state of a self-regulating system, we but it suffers from a short-circuiting of the hermeneutic and critical would have the end-state of a formative process. A hermeneutically dimensions of social analysis: "In the framework of action theory, enlightened and historically oriented functionalism ... is guided by motives for action are harmonized with institutional values .... We an emancipatory cognitive interest that aims at reflection .... The may assume, however, that repressed needs which are not absorbed species too constitutes itself in formative processes, which are sedi­ into social roles, transformed into motivations, and sanctioned, men ted in the structural change of social systems, and which can be nevertheless have their interpretations. Either these interpretations reflected, that is, systematically narrated from an anticipated point 'overshoot' the existing order and, as utopian anticipations, signify of view." a not-yet-successful group identity; or, transformed into ideologies, Since publishing On the Logic rif the Social Sciences, Habermas has they serve projective substitute gratification as well as the justifica­ considerably expanded upon a number of its key elements. Thus, tion of repressing authorities." Habermas argues that if the analysis for example, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology, func­ of social systems were fully to incorporate these dimensions, it could tionalism, and systems theory have come in for extended discussion no longer be understood as a form of empirical-analytical science in later writings. And although Habermas could write in 1982 that on the model of biology; it would have to be transformed into a his­ he still found the basic line of argument correct, he has altered his torically oriented theory of society with a practical intent. The form position in a number of important respects.
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