person1950s-present

Jürgen Habermas

Disciplines:

Summary

German philosopher and the leading figure of second-generation Frankfurt School critical theory, who developed the theory of communicative action — rationality is embedded in the pragmatics of communicative practice — and discourse ethics.

Core Contribution

Communicative action: distinct from strategic action (success-oriented), communicative action is oriented to mutual understanding; the rationality implicit in communication is the basis of social critique. Discourse ethics: moral norms are valid only if all affected parties could agree to them in ideal discourse. The public sphere: civil society's communicative rationality can challenge systemic colonization.

Key Spikes & Highlights

Argued that the Enlightenment project is unfinished — against postmodern declarations of its death — and that communicative rationality provides the resources for its non-totalizing completion.
Publicly debated Derrida, Rawls, and Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI) in signature exchanges — the philosopher as public intellectual taking philosophical debates to their political stakes.
The ideal speech situation is a counterfactual presupposition of communication — we can criticize existing discourse by appeal to the norms implicit in the very act of communicating.

Notable Works & Achievements

The Theory of Communicative Action

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere

Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action

Between Facts and Norms

Historical Influences

Theodor Adorno Max Horkheimer Karl Marx John Dewey

Intellectual Lineage

Frankfurt School Critical Theory Kantian Ethics American Pragmatism

Contemporaries & Peers

John Rawls Jacques Derrida Niklas Luhmann

Minds Influenced

Axel Honneth Seyla Benhabib Nancy Fraser

Intellectual Posterity

Communicative Rationality Discourse Ethics Public Sphere Deliberative Democracy

Discussing