ABSTRACT
The Theory of Communicative Action tends to presuppose much of his work on the reconstruction of historical materialism, and in particular the understanding of evolution as a process by which societies respond to crises through the institutionalization of learning potentials. In cognitive utterances one asserts the propositional content, while in non-cognitive utterances one merely mentions it. Habermas's early presentation of systematically distorted communication draws heavily upon the account of psychoanalysis given in Knowledge and Human Interests. The illocutionary force of speech acts has, for Habermas, a rational foundation. In suggesting that illocutionary force has a rationality, Habermas is responding to the problem posed by Wittgenstein's game analogy. Discourse is characterized as that form of argument that is pursued once the assertive force of the propositional content has been suspended. The lifeworld is thus a source of solidarity, and as such cultural values cannot be questioned as a totality.
