Habermas Post Class

In class we discussed Habermas' quote on page 99 citing the quote impartially so that it read as follows; ' The idea of being 'modern'... changed with the belief, inspired by modern science, in the infiinite progress of knowledge...' (99). I found this quote to read far differently than the actual quote in the text and talked about it a bit in class but would like to further flush out my thought process in this rift.
That idea as cited, to me basicaly just says that the idea of modernity changed with the uncovering of knowledge through the sciences. The idea of being modern in this sense would just mean that science has progressed, belief has grown in science and society has expanded following shifts in modern science's infinite quest for knowledge. The quote from the text in its entirety reads as follows and says something completely different to me that far better helped me understand Habermas; 'Specifically, the idea of being 'modern' by looking back to the ancients changed with the belief, inspired by modern science, in the infinite progress of knowledge and in the infinite advance towards social and moral betterment' (99).
The key pieces included here suggest a much greater expanse of the belief in modern science leading to changes in the idea of moderniy. This quote opens up Habermas' conception to include more sociological and anthropological aspects. Bringing in the ancients to the quote and the conceptualization Habermas puts forth that generationally culture and cultural beliefs (norms) expand off of previous generations works. The idea here is that the advances in sciences by-generation lead to the structuring of the new beliefs of the next generation i.e. the works of Socrates, Aristotle, the Roman advances in architecture, medicinal advances, the creation of tools, industry, social&cultural norms directly impact and are involved in the next generation, the next society. The idea of being modern thus is how the contemporary society expands on the ideas of past and how the expansion on these ideas lead to new developments, improvements and progress knowledge.
What stood out to me even more than this is the inclusion of 'in the infinite advance of towards social and moral betterment' (99) because this directly correlates to a Marxian ideology of social structural formation through time/by generation. What Marx said, roughly, was that the idea of modernity in comparison to past generations was the creation of cultural, moral and social norms that proved societies progression. Taking this and using a bit of Howson's sociological view to create an example, I will expand on the civilizing process to move into Foucalt - trying to clarify things in my own head. Howson describes the civilizing process as the creation of societal constraints by the proletariat over the bourgeoisie to expand and create new social norms and acceptablity in conduct. The civilizing process moved society from 'grotesque' society to 'civilized'. Grotesque society was marked, in a nutshell, by vulgarity, using Britain as the example, pre-civilizing, sex was commonplace and not frowned upon in public, nor was defecating or fighting. The civilizing process shifted this through the reconstruction of cultural norms and acceptabilities to a more civilized culture in which public displays were frowned upon and even illegal in some instances. Foucalt describes the 'knowledges, practices and norms that have developed to regulate the quality of life of the population as biopolitics' (Howson, 126). Biopolitics emerged from Habermas' looking back to the ancients, they looked back saw what was wrong, shifted society to civilize and progress. The sciences have done the same, it all spawns and expands from a certain point and progresses in the infinite advance Habermas dictates. The Marx aspect allowed society to create social and moral bounds to allow progression, the civilizing process is example of this and as society expands these cultural norms and moral boundaries progress with society to change their constitution and relevance by generation.
The problem I had with the class example was that it left out the inclusion of the ancients and the infinite advance of social and moral betterment. I think that those three notions are implicit to what Habermas is trying to say in this piece and need to be included in the lesson as we try to learn the theories of these great sociologists.