ABSTRACT
Legitimation Crisis Legitimation Crisis, Habermas approaches the problem of contemporary crisis through the fundamental part played by communication and language use in the reproduction of society. Habermas's theory of social change may be explicated by rehearsing his four principle criticisms of historical materialism. Habermas's understanding of historical science is still broadly that articulated in Knowledge and Human Interest. History is grounded in the practical cognitive interest. Social evolution is not interested in the reconstruction of theology, philosophy or law, let alone science or technology, but rather in the structures of thought that underpin and make any institutional development possible. One final point may be made about the relationship of the reconstruction of historical materialism to The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. The public sphere has found a new and deeper justification through the theory of social evolution.
