Jürgen Habermas 
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.

Table of Content

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.