A Metanarrative of Emancipation

Abstract

Jurgen Habermas holds a unique place among contemporary philosophers as an original voice compelling us to reassess the accomplishments of modernity. Various critiques of the Enlightenment can he found in French postmodern and poststructural thinkers such as Derrida and Lyotard, while most Frankfurt school thinkers such as Horkheimer and Adorno share many of these criticisms. In contrast to other Frankfurt school thinkers, Habermas considers modernity to be an “unfinished project,” whose resources have not yet been exhausted, and calls us to rethink the dehumanizing elements of modernity without abandoning the Enlightenment. In his own words, “the project of modernity has not yet been fulfilled.”¹ Much of Habermas s work is a critique of both the turn against modernity and the progressivist excesses of positivism and scientism.