regarded as suggestive and tentative rather than as convincing and
complete. At the same time, Habermas’s work contains insights that
seem crucial for any understanding of the relation of theory to practice;
in particular, his attempt to produce a unified theory of knowledge,
justice, action and rationality which can provide the grounds on which
a social science with ‘practical intent’ can be constructed. It is this
theme that is considered in the next section.