Habermas (1980 ) reminds us that Weber introduced the concept of “rationality” to determine the form of economic activity in capitalism, of bourgeois private law relations, and the form of bureaucratic domination. The progressive rationalization of society, for the author, is connected to secularization and the institutionalization of scientific and technical progress. As far as technique and science penetrate the structures of society, the old ways of legitimizing traditional institutions collapse. Therefore, different from Parsons’ structural and functionalist interpretation of Weber’s work, Habermas - influenced by Lukács - impacted the tradition of the critical theory, particularly the notion of instrumental reason.
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