China and the West

Habermas, Jürgen. Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. (Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, 1981).
Tong Shijun : In his writings, Habermas has rarely mentioned devloping countries in general and China in particular, except in his discussion of Max Weber's conception of occidental rationalism. This essay tries to show, however, that his theory of modernity and modernization based on his theory of communicative action is, compared with other current social theories, more relevant to China. Habermas criticizes Max Weber for observing Chinese culture only from the perspective of ethical rationalization, and suggests that we also observe it from the perspective of cognitive rationalization, and compare it with the Greek tradition insead of the Judeo-Christian tradition. In doing so Habermas refers to Joseph Needham's study of the history of science and technology of ancient China.