16 - J??rgen Habermas: postwar German political debates and the making of a critical theorist

Summary

Like few other intellectuals of his generation, Jürgen Habermas (1929–) has not only helped shape theoretical discourse in an astonishing array of scholarly fields (e.g., jurisprudence, the philosophy of social sciences, political theory or philosophy, and social theory) but has also consistently played a major role in cultural and political debates that have regularly garnered broad public audiences: In the Federal Republic of Germany, whose development Habermas has critically scrutinized pretty much since its founding, he has consistently and sometimes courageously checked revanchist political tendencies, repeatedly speaking out against antidemocratic and illiberal voices and trends. To focus on Habermas's accomplishments as a “political philosopher” thus necessarily means ignoring many of his most significant contributions. Nonetheless, it remains appropriate to do so if only because his massive oeuvre speaks directly to one of political philosophy's main concerns since the 1960s.