On the ninetieth anniversary of Jürgen Habermas
(This article was published on June 17, 2019)
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Jürgen Habermas, one of the most influential living philosophers, turns ninety. In Frankfurt, where he taught at the university for more than two decades, his students and contemporaries, such as Charles Taylor and Richard Bernstein, among many others, are gathering to honor the man who, since the end of the Second World War, has cultivated the legacy of the Enlightenment and kept hope alive.
The key word around which his thought revolves is 'communication,' that is, the fact that we neither think nor exist in isolation. He illustrated this for me in a conversation we had in Barcelona more than 10 years ago, on the occasion of a lecture at the CCCB. I asked him what argument he could think of to counter the foolish relativism of our times. The example he gave was remarkably simple, as obvious as the words we use to speak to one another daily: when one person promises another to do something, these words bind them. If they break the promise, they must provide a justification for their breach, and it is then that the intersubjective nature—that is, not merely subjective—of the reasons we give each other becomes apparent: the person who breaks the promise cannot say just anything, but must say what is said in such cases; they must respond in certain terms, otherwise their explanation will not also apply to others. Speaking is always a collective activity that binds us together and only has meaning to the extent that all speakers and listeners understand us, correct us, or eventually learn from us.
Reason is, therefore, communicative, as he already stated in the title of his great work of 1981, 'Theory of Communicative Action'. This has ethical implications, because those affected by the actions being deliberated must be able to have their say, must be able to participate in determining these policies and actions. If some speak and decide on behalf of everyone, and if there are no good reasons to assume that these others would agree with what is decided in their name, then the principle of reciprocity is not fulfilled, and the domination of some by others emerges.
Undoubtedly, the defining historical event in Habermas's thought is the realization of the barbarity of the Third Reich. All his books, perhaps all his ideas, must be understood against this backdrop. Hence his defense of the European project as a safeguard against the totalitarianism that arises from national and/or ethnic retreat. This defense has taken on a heavy tone in recent years, brought about by the relegation of the post-national European constellation in the name of national interests. Without solidarity, there is no Europe.
His interest in religion since the beginning of the 21st century can also be understood in this light. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the weakening of the left's potential, Habermas believes that religions articulate certain reasons inherent in our cultural and ethical heritage that can inform public and democratic deliberation on the legislative challenges of the present. This willingness to learn from the diverse European spiritual traditions is by no means the result of a sudden religious conversion. Rather, it stems from intellectual honesty in the broadest sense.
Habermas is not only a highly regarded philosopher in academia, one of the great renovators of the Enlightenment project, but he has also been and continues to be a powerful and essential voice in German and European political debate. His public voice, periodically collected in small volumes, serves as a model for avoiding the simplification and vulgarization of political communication. Certainly, his prose is neither light nor easily understood; one might say that at times the thesis of his writings is hidden beneath mountains of subordinate clauses. However, this conceptual rigor is the result of a conscious methodological approach. If the reader pays close attention to the text, they discover that the difficulty in reading it stems from the fact that his sentences advance like an army, covering all flanks with respect to potential criticisms, constantly reminding the reader of the presuppositions of his assertions and the consequences of his proposals.
The effort of reading Habermas's books and articles is rewarded: we find a defense of the Enlightenment normative principles upon which the best of our political, legal, and moral tradition grows, and a conceptual apparatus with which to oppose populism and ideologies that seek to conceal their own from the world. It is for this reason that we can congratulate ourselves on his 90th birthday tomorrow, and that he will be celebrating with a 1,700-page book reviewing the history of philosophical thought, which will be available in bookstores at the end of September.