ABSTRACT
In the present study I seek to systematize, albeit briefly and from one perspective only, the principal ideas already elaborated over the past two decades in the following books of mine: Everyday Life, Towards a Marxist Theory of Value, On Instincts, A Theory of Feelings, A Theory of History, and several other writings. A summary, almost by definition, must be laconic and straightforward. It does not permit digressions and detours, however attractive or desirable broader philosophical inquiries into or reflections on major issues might be. This is why I must abandon almost entirely the analysis of all those theories related to my main problem. To succumb to such temptations would only lead me away from the question which no philosophical discourse can today avoid. The problem of rationality has come of age as the focal point par excellence of contemporary philosophical and sociological discourse. Yet this centrality has not produced unanimity: theoretical proposals for the solution of the problems are many and varied. In a different way and for different reasons an absence of unanimity also characterizes the problem of everyday life.
