Between sytem and lifeworld, a possible mediation? A Study on the Theory of Jürgen Habermas

• Grant number: 20/03962-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2020
• End date: May 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Theory
• Principal Investigator: Raphael Cezar da Silva Neves
• Grantee: Beatriz Grasiano Campos
• Host Institution: Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Osasco. Osasco , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present project aims to understand if and how it is possible to create a theoretical connection between the concepts of system and lifeworld in Habermas's theory. In his earlier formulations on work and interaction - and after that, with the introduction of the "system-lifeworld" distinction - Habermas's focus was on distinguishing both concepts instead of linking them. This allowed him to diagnose the interferences of one sphere into the other as pathologies, what Habermas has called the "colonization" of the lifeworld by the system. For this purpose, our first step will be a study of Habermas's formulations that appeared before The Theory of Communicative Action (1981) - since this work had a huge impact on his later concepts of system and lifeworld. We will try to understand how work and interaction became the system-lifeworld dichotomy. Thereafter, we will study the work of Habermas until the 1980s in order to determine whether there are mechanisms of mediation between both dimensions and, at the same time, keeping their distinct logics of the social life. (AU)