Around modernity: genealogies, critiques, deconstructions

Habermas frequently uses the expression ‘diagnosis of the times’ (Zeitdiagnose), and similar ones, like ‘diagnosis of the present time’ (Gegenwartsdiagnose). He even edited a two-volume book that brought together researchers from various disciplines and different backgrounds to sketch just such a diagnosis (Habermas 1979). That is not surprising since, despite the different names it may have been given over time, ‘diagnosis of the times’ has always been a central task in Marxism, more broadly, and in Critical Theory in particular. I will first propose a reconstruction of Habermas’ intellectual development in which successive underlying diagnoses of the times come together with changes in theoretical achievements, and do this in two steps: from 1968 to 1981 (a) and from 1981 to 1992 (b). Such a reconstruction will then lead to the examination of some of the presuppositions and consequences of Habermas’ choices, especially when it comes to the questions of the appropriation of traditional contributions by Critical Theory and of the status of ‘theory’ and of the ‘diagnosis of the times’ in this intellectual field. By establishing the specificity of Habermas’ way of doing “theory” and its position in the history of Critical Theory, I also hope to present a plausible hypothesis for explaining his influence in this field today. Such an influence, in my view, should not be understood in the sense that critical theorists currently see themselves as “Habermasians”. Quite the opposite would be the case, in fact. My point will be rather that critical theorists usually share Habermas’ way of doing “theory” as an unquestioned assumption.