Abstract: The concept of life-world proposed by Husserl in his later years has become one of the core concepts of modern philosophy and social sciences.Based on the specific analysis of different understandings of the life-world,Habermas critically reconstructs the concept of life-world from three levels of “culture-society-individuality” based on universal pragmatics,which not only explains the structural elements of life-world and the process of life-world reproduction,but also reveals the “complementary relationship” between life-world and communicative actions,and the contribution of the process of life-world reproduction to the acquisition of the structural elements of life-world,thus providing the preconditions for his second-order social conception of “system-life-world” and his theory of the colonization of life-world.Although Habermas's theory of life-world colonization is insufficient to reveal the root causes of the late capitalist crisis,it may even be suspected of defending the late capitalist society.However,Habermas's efforts to reconstruct the concept of life-world based on universal pragmatics are still worthy of recognition,thus making the concept of life-world gain special significance in Habermas's social philosophy.

Key words: Husserl, life-world, Habermas, life-world structure, the reproduction of life-world, the colonization of life-world