Although objectively greater demands are placed on this authority, it operates less as a public opinion giving a rational foundation to the exercise of political and social authority, the more it is generated for the purpose of an abstract vote… — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share Image
The state is in danger of falling into disrepute due to the evidence of its inadequate resources. — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share Image
Since the intervention in Afghanistan, we suddenly began to notice when, in political discussions, we found ourselves only among Europeans or Israelis. — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share Image
Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems. — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share Image
“For the normative self-understanding of modernity, Christianity has functioned as more than just a precursor or catalyst. Universalistic egalitarianism, from which sprang the ideals of freedom and a collective life in solidarity, the autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the… — Jürgen Habermas Copy Share
Osama bin Laden, the person, more likely serves the function of a stand-in. Compare the new terrorists with partisans or conventional terrorists in Israel.… — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share Image
“Today, the language of the market penetrates every pore and forces every interpersonal relation into the schema of individual preference.” — Jürgen Habermas Copy Share Image
The usage of the words "public" and "public sphere" betrays a multiplicity of concurrent meanings. Their origins go back to various historical phases and, when applied synchronically to the conditions of a bourgeois society that is industrially advanced and constituted as a social-welfare state, they fuse into a clouded amalgam. Yet the very conditions that make the inherited language seem… — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share
“Only one who takes over his own life history can see in it the realization of his self. Responsibility to take over one's own… — Jürgen Habermas Copy Share Image
“[Jürgen Habermas' obituary to friend and philosopher, Richard Rorty] One small autobiographical piece by Rorty bears the title 'Wild Orchids and Trotsky.' In it, Rorty describes how as a youth he ambled around the blooming hillside in north-west New Jersey, and breathed in the stunning odour of the orchids. Around the same time he discovered a fascinating book at the… — Jürgen Habermas Copy Share
After September 11, the European governments have completely failed. They are incapable of seeing beyond their own national scope of interests. — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share Image
Positivism stands or falls with the principle of scientism, that is that the meaning of knowledge is defined by what the sciences do and… — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share Image
Perhaps September 11 could be called the first historic world event in the strictest sense: the impact, the explosion, the slow collapse - a… — Jurgen Habermas Copy Share Image
