Abstract

Education is in itself a project of Enlightenment. The critical theory of the Frankfurt School, whose origin and development bear the imprint of self-destructive social-cultural processes of modernity and of the Holocaust, can count as an attempt to continue the process of Enlightenment through radical self-criticism. The paper presents the approach of the first generation of critical theory and then Jurgen Habermas’ critique of this approach and his reconstruction of critical theory in his theory of communicative action. Special emphasis is laid on the discussion of the ethical implications of human communication. From this background the paper enquires what significance these reflections could have for a revised concept of education.