Modernization shifts understanding from inherited tradition to risky rational agreement

Evidence

Against Gadamer he insists that ‘the reflected appropriation of tradition breaks up the nature-like substance of tradition and alters the position of the subject in it.’ One feature of modernization is precisely that ‘the need for understanding’ is less ‘covered in advance by an interpreted lifeworld immune from critique’ and more ‘met by the interpretive accomplishments of the participants themselves, that is, by way of risky (because rationally motivated) agreement’. This shift in the relative weight in taken in speech by the lifeworld and the pursuit of rationally motivated agreement is bound up with the general process of rationalization. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 390

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines a key Habermasian distinction between lifeworld-grounded understanding and rationally motivated agreement, useful for contesting postmodern claims about language and tradition.
• XREF: connects to: Weber’s rationalization theory defines modernization as differentiation plus instrumental rationality — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 153; Traditional societies reduce complexity through religious norms rather than impersonal trust — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 206; Modernity’s need for self-justification arises from the collapse of traditional norms — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 264 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Modernity’s need for self-justification arises from the collapse of traditional norms #expands (0.80) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 264
• Traditional societies reduce complexity through religious norms rather than impersonal trust #corroborates (0.72) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 206