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He argues that legitimate authority requires genuine public reasoning, and that this is not a utopian ideal but a practical demand.
He asked what principles of justice you would choose if you didn't know who you'd be. The answer was more radical than anyone expected.
Connection
Jürgen Habermas two liberalisms in correspondence John Rawls — Habermas and Rawls conducted a published exchange in the mid-1990s over whether political liberalism could stay neutral among comprehensive doctrines, the most careful disagreement in late twentieth-century political philosophy.
Ideas
Words
“Reaching understanding is the inherent telos of human speech.”
“Modernity — an incomplete project.”
“Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought.”
“Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override.”
Key Moments
1956
Joins the Frankfurt School under Adorno
1981
The Theory of Communicative Action
1950
Princeton doctorate and early career
1971
A Theory of Justice reshapes political philosophy
Works
Knowledge and Human Interests
A Theory of Justice