Habermas, Jürgen (yûr`gən hä`bûrmäs), 1929–, German philosopher. He is a professor at the Univ. of Frankfurt (emeritus since 1994) and is the best-known contemporary proponent of critical theory, which is a social theory with Marxist roots developed in the 1930s by the Frankfurt School Frankfurt School, a group of researchers associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research), founded in 1923 as an autonomous division of the Univ. of Frankfurt.
..... Click the link for more information. . In the spirit of his Frankfurt School predecessors, Habermas has criticized modern industrial societies for excessive emphasis on instrumental action, i.e., on doing whatever is necessary to attain given ends. This emphasis, he argues, has prevented them from appreciating the importance of communicative action, which is understanding and coming to agreement with others. Habermas has also constructed a theory of "discourse ethics" according to which moral judgments would have validity if agreed to by agents in an ideal speech situation. His works include Knowledge and Human Interests (1968, tr. 1971), Theory of Communicative Action (2 vol. 1981, tr. 1981–84), and Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action (1983, tr. 1989).

Bibliography

See D. Rasmussen, Reading Habermas (1990).

Habermas, Jürgen

(born June 18, 1929) German philosopher associated with the Frankfurt school. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Bonn in 1954. He taught primarily at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Ger.; he also directed the Max Planck Institute in Starnberg (1971–80). In his Theory of Communicative Action (1985, 1987), he attempts to develop an account of truth that does not imply that truth is “absolute” or transcendent—i.e., valid for all people and all societies at all times. His “discourse” theory of truth is based on the observation that communication, unlike other forms of human action, is oriented toward “consent” rather than “success,” in that it aims to achieve mutual understanding rather to change or master some aspect of the world. The process of constructing such an understanding, however, requires that each individual assume that the utterances of the other are for the most part “true,” and that the other can provide reasons to support the truth of his utterances should he be called upon to do so. The notion of truth is thus not a metaphysical fiction but a regulative ideal that makes communication possible.