Jürgen Habermas is a German philosopher and sociologist. Since 1964, he has been a professor in Frankfurt. He became the greatest philosopher of our time thanks to the openness of his views and a keen interest in the problem of resolving conflicts without violence. Fame came to Jürgen Habermas after a series of his open speeches against famous philosophers of his time.
Childhood
Born in an era of political tension (June 18, 1929) in the small town of Düsseldorf, Jürgen Habermas became one of those German children who were subjected to serious propaganda for joining the Hitler Youth. Many sources claim that Habermas was a member of this Nazi organization. In 2006, a big scandal broke out around this topic with the participation of popular German publications.
The famous historian Franz Ulrich Wöhler denied this information, citing the fact that Jurgen had a malformation from birth - a cleft lip. Jürgen Habermas himself, whose photo perfectly demonstrates this, tried in every possible way to avoid such conversations. In this regard, he could not join the organization, which selected only "perfect Aryans" into its ranks. However, there is an opinion that the future philosopher, at the age of 14, taught classes among members of the Hitler youth for emergency medical care.
The famous philosopher Jürgen Habermas, whose biography had an interesting effect on his scientific worldview, began to become interested in politics and human relations as early as his school years.
Formation of scientific interests
Jurgen's school years passed in the Gummersbach Gymnasium. Here, young people greeted every message about the advance of German troops east with enthusiastic applause. Previously, a provincial town during the war became an industrial center. Captive workers from the countries of conquered Europe were brought here. In such an atmosphere, the personality of Jürgen was formed.
After graduating from high school, he intensely began to study philosophy, psychology, sociology and history. He studied at the universities of Zurich, Göttingen and Bonn. After completing his studies, he wanted to try himself as a journalist. Habermas worked as a freelance employee at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Handelsblatt. Fame came to him at the age of 24, after the criticism of the German philosophy of those years by Martin Heidegger fell upon him. Jürgen openly accused Martin of promoting Nazism.
In the process of a long rethinking of modern reality, Habermas began to formulate the idea of the communicative aspect of the conflict. He believes that a rational decision in the communication process can be made thanks to discourse - this is the process of understanding people with common life principles.
The work of Jürgen Habermas
The starting points of the sociological theory of Habermas are 2 concepts:
- Life world - in it there are all social relations (family, friends, work). It corresponds to communicative rationality.
- Systemic world - represents anonymous and business relationships. It corresponds to instrumental rationality.
One of the main works of Habermas is "Theory of communicative action", which develops an original concept of society.
Of particular interest is the idea of the German philosopher about interaction in modern society. Jürgen Habermas distinguishes between all actions on the communicative (which are designed to provide mutual understanding) and formal (aimed at the result).
The philosophical discourse on modernity is a book that includes 12 lectures by Jürgen Habermas, which he read at a number of European universities. It was first published in 1985. Then she was a great success and caused a strong resonance in intellectual circles. To this day, the book has not lost its relevance. In his work, Habermas discusses the problems of modernity, linking together the opinions of supporters and opponents of postmodern culture.
What is interesting to modern political scientists and sociologists Jürgen Habermas? A biography that briefly describes his social activities allows us to trace the process of formation of the ideas of neo-Marxism.
Teaching and Research
From 1964 to 1994, Jürgen Habermas headed the Department of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Frankfurt. His appearance became a sensation for students. They immediately fell in love with the ideology of the critic-truth-seeker. During this period, Hambermas became one of the main representatives of the second generation of theorists of neo-Marxism. However, the interest of students in the famous philosopher disappeared after the latter harshly criticized the actions of one of the leaders of the theorists of the "left" Rudy Duchke.
It happens as follows. In 1967, the shah of Iran, Mohammed Rosa Pahlavin, arrived in Berlin. Western European students protest against the morals of this country. Subsequently, the rally resulted in riots and clashes with the police, which killed student Benno Onesorg. Habermas openly declares that Duchke is a leftist fascist and provokes police violence.
In the 70s, Jurgen carried out a research program in accordance with the direction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. In 1994, the philosopher retired.
Jürgen Habermas Quotes
The ideology of Jürgen Habermas is based on improving the rationality of human communication. Regarding the state system, the philosopher says that the social state is the result of the peaceful coexistence of capitalism and democracy.
Human relationships Jürgen seeks to make more productive. He believes that reason is given to man in order to convey to him the unreasonable. The philosopher’s opinion about guilt is interesting. "She is an indicator of betrayal of duty and accompanies a split of will."
Critique of Jürgen Habermas
Opponents of the theory of communicative action of Habermas criticized him that his ideal situation of consensus, non-violent contract is too far from modern times. In conditions of cruelty and irrationality of a person, such communication methods are useless.
For example, J. Meehan in the preface of the collection “Feminists Read Habermas” writes the following: with all the creative power of this philosophy, saturated with liberalism and the desire to protect human rights, it still remains deeply masculine. This, according to Meehan, means the absence of attempts to understand gender issues in the philosophy of Habermas.
