Abstract

Reflecting on the relationship between power and critique, a change takes place concerning the relationship between the individual and society. While for Horkheimer and Adorno productive change could consist solely in a change of the whole that is no longer considered possible, for Foucault critical and productive change from the individual is no longer conceivable, because in the modern world it starts from a social production of all individuals. As a result, both approaches are no longer able to present a willfully mediating and changing entity. The phenomenologist Bernhard Waldenfels goes beyond these two approaches because he presupposes a productive everyday life between the individual and society. However, it turns out that he gets himself in justification difficulties. Finally, Habermas will present an alternative approach to the dimension between the individual and society. It is the language by which the individual and society can be reasonably related.