2. BORN 18 JUNE 1929 (AGE 87)
ERA CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
REGION WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
MAIN INTERESTS SOCIAL THEORY, EPISTOMOLOGY, POLITICAL THEORY,
PRAGMATICS
NOTABLE IDEAS COMMUNICATIVE RATIONALITY, POST-METAPHYSICAL
PHILOSOPHY, DISCOURSE ETHICS, DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY,
UNIVERSAL PRAGMATICS, COMMUNICATIVE ACTION E.T.C
3. BRIEF HISTORY
Jurgen habermas is a german sociologist and
philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and
pragmatism.
He was born with a cleft palate and underwent
corrective surgery twice during childhood.
He is perhaps best known for his theories on
communicative rationality and public sphere.
Global polls consistently find that Habermas is widely
recognized as one of the word’s leading intellectuals.
He argues that his speech disability made him think
differently about the importance of communication and
prefer writing over the spoken word as a medium.
4. HIS LIFE AS A TEACHER AND MENTOR
Habermas is a famed teacher and mentor. Among his
prominent students were ;
the pragmatic philosopher Herbert Schnadelbach
(theorist of discourse distinction and rationality),
the political sociologist Claus Offe (professor at the
Hertie School of Governance in Berlin),
the social philosopher Johann Arnason (professor at La
Trobe University and chief editor of the journal Thesis
Eleven) and many more.
5. Haberman has constructed a comprehensive framework
of social theory and philosophy drawing on a number of
intellectual traditions;
The German philosophical thought of Immanuel Kant ,
Friedrich Schelling,
G.W.F. Hegel,
Wilhelm Dilthey,
Edmund Hursserl and
Hans-George Gadamer.
6. Habermas' Theory of Discourse Ethics
Habermas’ moral theory is called discourse ethics or
theory of argumentation.
Discourse ; to argue
It is designed for contemporary societies where moral
agents encounter pluralistic notions of the good and try
to act on the basis of publically justifiable principles.
His moral theory is grounded in the principle of
discourse ethics, which can be viewed as a principle of
argumentation.
7. Habermas’ theory of Discourse
In discourse ethics, Habermas communicatively grounded
and revised Kant’s categorical imparative, which he
viewed as incorrectly monologic, abstract and strategic.
Kant argued that valid norms are those that one
individual could decide should be universal law after
solitarily considering the consequences for everyone.
Habermas argued that valid norms must be publicly and
discursively defendable.
9. His theory suggested a kind of democracy where the
constitution and law is open to public discussion and
suggestion(s).
10. Jürgen Habermas' theory of discourse ethics contains two
distinctive characteristics:
(I) it puts forth as its fundamental principle a prerequisite
of participation in argumentation for testing the validity
of a norm and
(ii) it transforms the individual nature of Kant's
categorical imperative into a collective imperative by
reformulating it to ensure the expression of a general will
and by elevating it to a rule of argumentation.
11. Discourse Ethics: the Rules of Reason
FREEDOM TO PARTICIPATE.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
PARTICIPANTS ARE FREE FROM FORCE OR COERCION.
12. Such rules are seen to circumscribe the ideal speech
situation, one which stresses equality and freedom for
each participant – especially Freedom to participate in the
discourse in critical ways so as to express one's own
attitudes, desires, and needs, and freedom from coercion
of several sorts.
13. Conclusively, habermas’ theory of discourse stipulates
that the only norms that can be accepted as valid norms
are those that meet (or could meet) with the approval of
all affected in their capacity as participants in a practical
discourse.
14. He also came up with the Universalization Principle which
states that a norm is valid when the foreseeable
consequences and side effects of its general observance
for the interests and value orientations of each individual
could be jointly accepted by all concerned without
coercion.
