Abstract:

As a second generation representative of critical theory, Habermas has brought forward ideas with different titles on social science like many thinkers’ former self. His ideas generated in social theory, epistemology, political philosophy and communication are at the center of many discussions and arguments. Habermas has criticized the approach to social science of positivism in “On the Logic of Social Sciences” transferring the approach to the methods of the social sciences. That showdown with positivism also reflects his views on hermeneutics, meaning and language, and it contains discussions with many predecessors or contemporaries thinkers. This work, which compiles studies involving different times, reveals the contribution of enlightenment to the critical theory of Frankfurt School as well as Habermas' approach to the social science through dialectical philosophy of science and positivism and dissents from the critical theory of Frankfurt School, and also underlies Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action. In this study, Habermas's criticism of the methods of the social sciences will deal with the four major titles. We will try to demonstrate, respectively, Habermas's critique of positivism and empiricism, dualism of natural sciences and geisteswissenschaften, the relation of language with meaning and knowledge, and his criticism towards social science via critical hermeneutics views, in particular in the framework of his work On the Logic of Social Sciences