Abstract

In this work I compare the theories of history of Marx, Foucault, and Habermas. I show that each develops an analysis of history in order to situate modern society within a larger historical context and to develop a critical perspective of that society. I attempt to show how for each thinker a specific historical vision also entails a politics and political vision of a future characterized in terms of greater freedom. I contrast their different views regarding continuity and discontinuity in history, science and the explanatory status of theory, causality, and the viability of the concept of progress in history. I show how each has a characteristically modern or postmodern approach toward historiography and social theory. I read Marx as a paradigmatic modernist who is largely uncritical of the enlightenment norms that have come under attack by postmodernists like Foucault. I situate Habermas as a mediating figure in these debates who adopts many "postmodern" themes, but who also reconstructs key enlightenment values and tries to hang onto the "project of modernity." I argue that Habermas' reconstructed modern position is superior to prevailing postmodern positions, although the postmodern critiques of someone like Foucault provide an important source of criticism for problems with Habermas