Jürgen Habermas

Abstract

Born in 1929, Jurgen Habermas has become the most notable and independent-minded successor to the Frankfurt School of philosophy, which attempted to remould Marxism into and incisive ideological and cultural criticism. In 1956 Habermas joined Adorno at Frankfurt University, and, since 1964, has occupied the chair of philosophy there. Over the last twenty years, Habermas has extended his concern with Marxist thought as a critique of ideology into a broad preoccupation with those cultural and political factors which distort and disrupt human communication. His most distinctive contribution to contemporary European philosophy lies in his argument that perfectible structures of reasoning, as well as cumulatively liberating insights into truth, are already within our possession. They are not grounded in, or reflections of, an alleged external reality, but emanate from those socially grounded discourses that constitute our “life-world”. It is important to note that most of his most important work takes the form of debates with other philosophers. Examples of such debates will be discussed later in this chapter.