ABSTRACT
Beginning with the critical theory of German idealism and materialism, Jurgen Habermas slowly moves away from grounding sociology in a transcendental philosophy of science and subjective consciousness. In systematic and comprehensive fashion, Habermas details the normative foundation of analytical science in the technical values of social control and administrative planning. Praxis is defined by Karl Marx as not just work but as the social forms of work, the technological forces of production, and the social relations of production. Habermas argues that Marx begins to develop a materialist epistemology in his early writings by replacing Immanuel Kant's critique of pure reason with a critique of political economy. Habermas connects the rationalization of science and society to the rationalization of the methodological dispute. The cognitive interest of each determines the objectivity, method, and logic of the distinctive validity claims of each form of social science.
