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Juergen_Habermas photo by Nikolas Becker-

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas is a German philosopher who presented notable achievements in sociology, religion, communication studies, epistemology, language, and political-legal thought.

His father was a Nazi sympathizer and he was a leader of the German Jungvolk, a section of the Hitlers’ youth, and is generally accused as a controversial thinker in this respect.

He was associated with the Frankfurt School, and his work focuses on the foundations of epistemology and social theory as well as other areas of philosophy.

He is majorly known for his work on the concept of modernity. Here are the top 10 interesting facts about Jürgen Habermas.

1. He was a revered teacher and a mentor

Juergen Habermas photo by Wolfram Huke-

He taught philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and presided over the department of philosophy and sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt.

His most prominent students were the pragmatic philosopher Herbert Schnädelbach (theorist of discourse distinction and rationality), the political sociologist Claus Offe (professor at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin), and the social philosopher Johann Arnason among others.

2. He has held remarkable positions over the years

In 1961, he became Privatdozent in Marburg, the movie was considered extremely rare for the German academic division of that time.

He was presented with the position of “extraordinary professor” (professor without chair) of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg in 1962, which he accepted.

In this same year, he expanded his first serious public attention, in Germany, with the publication of his habilitation.

 In 1964, powerfully supported by Adorno, Habermas returned to Frankfurt to take over Horkheimer’s chair in philosophy and sociology.

The philosopher Albrecht Wellmer was his subordinate in Frankfurt from 1966 to 1970.

3. He was at odds with the philosopher Derrida

At the beginning of 1980, Habermas acquired an arch-enemy, Jacques Derrida, a fellow philosopher. Their clashes as thinkers arouse due to their profound different points of view but are necessarily reconcilable they were fueled by polemical responses to the mischaracterization of these differences. They later reconciled and even organized a seminar in 2000 at Frankfurt on problems in the philosophy of law, and ethics politics making their reconciliation spread among their disciples.

4. His attitude on religion has morphed over the years

Habermas’s attitude towards religion has changed through the years. He attempted to reopen political liberalist to religion, he believed religious traditions articulate truths on which the democratic societies continue to depend on their civil and moral health.

Analyst Phillipe Portier identifies three phases in which Habermas’s attitude towards religion changed, the first phase is the decade of 1980, when he was younger when he argued against religion, seeing it as an estrangement, a reality control tool.

The second phase was from the mid-1980s to the beginning of the 21^st century, where he halted any discussion or dialogues involving religious topics.

The third phase is when he was much older, when his viewing gear of religion changed towards a positive one, he saw religion as a positive role in society.

 5. His work was characterized by anti-Positivism

Habermas photo by Európa Pont-

Habermas’s work in the 1960s was focused on anti-positivism and is known for rejecting the positivism of Marx’s later writings but acknowledges his earlier works as a more effective trigger of an inherent critique of Marx’s hermeneutic aspartic.

His disagreement with Marx’s work hatched from arguments laid as firstly, argued that science, as well as philosophy, had ceased to have a critical role in determining the worth of the ends to be pursued, rather it became a prisoner of purposive rationality.

He saw science and rationality in the capitalistic being an enemy of humans, improvising their cultural lives and aggravating pathological forms.

6. He has formulated the elements of the theory of language

In the early 1970s, Habermas created the 1^st elements of the theory of language communication and the evolution of society aimed to provide the basis of a normative framework in which interests and problems affecting the populace could be attended to.

This work was illuminated further in massive volumes of the book Theory of Communicative Action, and it was first published in 1981.

Communication action is a concept used to describe agency in the form of communication, and this concept is attentive majorly in the works of Habermas.

In his view, the communication action theory is restricted to deliberating the free exchange of beliefs and intentions under the absence of control.

He stressed the fact that all humans are instinctively capable of reaching mutual agreements through speech.

He considered the development of communicative rationality as his biggest achievement.

He differentiated it from the rationalist point of view by highlighting the rationality of speech rather than looking to the cosmos for answers.

7. He has offered criticism of postmodernism

Habermas photo by Európa Pont –

He offered early criticism in his essay modernity versus postmodernism 1981, in which he gained much popularity in the philosophical world.

In his essay, he raised the issue of whether it’s worth holding on to the intention of the enlightenment as weak as it may be or whether the entire project of modernity is a lost cause.

Postmodernism is an intellectual stance defined by an attitude of skepticism toward what is considered the grand narratives of modernism.

8. He has critiqued the States of the world

His early work aimed to show how the modern state as a result of and contributed to capitalism’s vital survival.

In the 1970s he argued in the light of the work of certain political economists, how the state wouldn’t be able to protect the mass from the worst crisis in the capitalistic economy due to its inability to control necessary revenue to support welfare programs.

9. He has given several speeches in China

Jürgen Habermas photo by Európa Pont-

Habermas visited the people’s republic of China in April 2001. He received a grand welcome and gave numerous speeches such as nation-state under the pressure of globalization.

10. He has pocketed several awards and honors

Habermas received awards and honors for the contributions h made to the philosophical fields. He received awards Luca such as the Prince of Asturias Award in Social Sciences of 2003 and awards the 2004 Kyoto Laureate in the Arts and Philosophy section.