Habermas oIIered some early criticisms in an essay, "Modernity versus Postmodernity"

(1981), which has achieved wide recognition. In that essay, Habermas raises the issue oI
whether, in light oI the Iailures oI the twentieth century, we "should try to hold on to the
intentions of the Enlightenment, Ieeble as they may be, or should we declare the entire project
oI modernity a lost cause?"
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Habermas reIuses to give up on the possibility oI a rational,
"scientiIic" understanding oI the liIe-world.
Habermas has several main criticisms oI postmodernism.
O irst, the postmodernists are equivocal about whether they are producing serious
theory or literature.
O $econd, Habermas Ieels that the postmodernists are animated by normative sentiments
but the nature oI those sentiments is concealed Irom the reader.
O %hird, Habermas accuses postmodernism oI being a totalizing perspective that Iails "to
diIIerentiate phenomena and practices that occur within modern society".
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O astly, Habermas asserts that postmodernists ignore that which Habermas Iinds
absolutely central - namely, everyday liIe and its practices.