Synopsis:
- Critique of Western capitalist democracies
- Marx's assessment of human evolution as an economic progression leaves out the human element: the individual's lack of freedom
- Not alienation but crisis: institutions manipulate individuals
- "Deliberative democracy" requires free, uncoerced, unconditioned, open debate among equal citizens, and would reject widely-held western assumptions (e.g., private property)
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- Not class revolution but Communicative Action (all thinking and language for the purpose of common action)
- Rationality is generated by interpersonal linguistic communication (instead of an isolated subject confronting the objective world)
- Communicative Action can transform the world and achieve a more humane, just, and egalitarian society
- A grand narrative provides a united vision of society
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