Jürgen Habermas 1929-

Modernity to Postmodernity:

Week Five

Dr Craig Hammond (UCBC)

Jürgen Habermas

The ‘last’ of the Modernists?

Habermas: Basic Concepts

• Enlightenment/Rationality– And how this is not-yet ‘exhausted’

• Communicative Action• Discourse Ethics• Consent• Pragmatics• Democracy

Enlightenment / Modernity

• Enlightenment/Modernity rests upon the following characteristics:

• 1) A belief in the fundamental process and human ability to ‘reason’

• 2) The rational and democratic practice of reason is established by the autonomy or democratic freedom of its citizens

• 3) Reason should be capable of evolving universal laws and norms via moral and political arenas.

• Note: to exercise personal freedom, to choose personal goals, and lifestyles – requires a type of freedom that others will accept; a freedom that others must agree to, and so avoid overriding or dominating another’s freedom.

Discourse Ethics & Pragmatics

Discourse Ethics & Pragmatics

• Discourse Ethics: the ‘Rules of Reason’ • Habermas in turn formulates the following

‘rules’ of reason-formulation in "Discourse Ethics," these are:

• Every subject with the competence to speak and act is allowed to take part in a discourse.

Discourse Ethics & Pragmatics

• 2a. Everyone is allowed to question any assertion. • 2b. Everyone is allowed to introduce an alternative

assertion into the discourse. • 2c. Everyone is allowed to express their attitudes,

desires, and needs. • 3. No speaker may be prevented, by internal or

external coercion, from exercising their rights as laid down in (1) and (2).

• Warning!!• Irrationality …• Unpredictability• Violence• Power• Hatred

Georges Bataille

• The Big Toe …