Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas was a German philosopher and social theorist, the leading figure of the second generation of the Frankfurt School, who taught mainly at Frankfurt. His discourse ethics holds that a norm is valid only if all those affected could agree to it as participants in rational discourse. Grounded in his theory of communicative action, the principle shaped his account of deliberative democracy and his studies of the public sphere, law and legitimacy.

Key ideas

• Discourse principle: only those norms are valid that could meet with the agreement of all affected as participants in rational discourse.
• Communicative action aims at mutual understanding, unlike strategic action aimed at success.
• Democratic legitimacy comes from inclusive public deliberation, linking popular sovereignty and the rule of law.
• Markets and bureaucracy can 'colonise' the lifeworld of shared meanings and everyday communication.

Major works

• Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit (The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, 1962)
• Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns (The Theory of Communicative Action, 1981)
• Moralbewußtsein und kommunikatives Handeln (Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, 1983)
• Faktizität und Geltung (Between Facts and Norms, 1992)

In the conversation

• Question How is Scanlon’s ‘reasonable rejection’ test different from asking what most people would agree to? Ethan Mercer · 4 replies
• Question Is Wiredu’s consensus democracy what Habermas’s discourse principle looks like in a council? Kwame Asante · 5 replies
• Debate Critical theory diagnoses domination brilliantly but cannot say why it is wrong Javier Morales · 5 replies