The Theory of Communicative Action: Volume 1

A major contribution to contemporary social theory. Not only does it provide a compelling critique of some of the main perspectives in 20th century philosophy and social science, but it also presents a systematic synthesis of the many themse which have preoccupied Habermas for thirty years. --Times Literary Supplement

"A substantial study that displays all the rigour and systemicity, the vision and the originality, which have justly earned Habermas the reputation of being the foremost social and political thinker in Germany today ... The Theory of Communicative Action represents a major contribution to contemporary social theory. Not only does it provide a compelling critique of some of the main perspectives in twentieth-century philosophy and social science, but it also presents a systematic synthesis of the many themes that have preoccupied Habermas for thirty years." – Times Literary Supplement

"One of the broadest, most comprehensive, elaborately and intensely theoretical works in social theory. Social theory and philosophy may never be the same again" – Philosophy and Social Criticism

Jürgen Habermas (born June 18, 1929) is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism.