ON THE IMPORTANCE OF JURGEN HABERMAS

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The way democracy works today or at least after the 2nd world war, we owe it largely to Habermas. His most important idea is communicative action, which looks into what he calls an ideal speech situation that seeks understanding and consensus by means of the truth instead of overpowering someone by force or intimidation. True to the tradition of critical theory, Habermas puts into question the influence of the state apparatus, the economy, and other technocratic instruments which for Habermas colonizes the lifeworld. What is the lifeworld? It refers basically to man's everyday life - family, community, including his beliefs. In the world of indigenous peoples, their lifeworld is colonized by hegemonic Western values that undermine their voice, hence, excluding them from greater society. In modern life, capitalism and consumer culture dictate the way people live their lives. Modern technology is controlled by capitalism (Big Tech) thereby rendering human existence into the calculative and technical. 

What democracy means today is due to the influence of Habermas. For Habermas, dialogue must define the relationship of people in the state and the same should be grounded in the pursuit of the truth. This truth emanates from the will of the people. For him, civil society is the sounding board upon which people can protect themselves from the excesses of power and the abuses of state authority. In contrast to Rawls, Habermas views politics as comprehensively grounded in the ethical whereas Rawls would like to limit the idea of public reason to the formalities of the state. Civil society, Rawls argues, belongs to what he calls the background culture. Hence, the same must be neutral. For Habermas, we cannot prevent Church people from expressing their own political views against the state because they too can be a source of the truth. Society, in this regard, must be about finding a common ground or consensus that is founded in the pursuit of what is right or ethical. This is the basis of political legitimacy.

- Christopher Ryan Maboloc, PhD 

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