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2004 Kyoto Prize Laureates 
Arts and Philosophy
Prize Field: Thought and Ethics "For achievements in social philosophy, particularly in establishing the communicative action theory and discourse ethics, and for their application in practical activities toward a public-minded ideal society." Professor Jürgen Habermas (Germany, b. 1929) Philosopher Professor Emeritus, University of Frankfurt Commentary on Achievements 1. Youthful Convictions Professor Jurgen Habermas was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1929, when the Nazis were rising to power. His father had ties with the Nazi Party, and as a child Habermas was a member of the Hitler Youth. This was the extent of his world until Germany's defeat in World War II and the subsequent Nuremburg War Crimes Trials, held when he was 15. It was those events that awakened the young Habermas to the horrors of criminal political systems, with a profound influence on his thinking. This is what led him to dedicate himself to the cause of social justice, working to formulate a better framework for society that might prevent a condition like Nazi Germany from ever arising again in Germany or the European scene. 2. First Encounter with the Frankfurt School As he began his philosophical studies, the young Habermas felt most attuned to the Critical Theory espoused by the Frankfurt School. According to this theory, the cruel and exploitative structure of modern society has furtively robbed human society of its cultural and individual freedoms. Adherents further assert that, by investigating, analyzing, and unscrambling this phenomenon, it is possible to raise people's social consciousness and maintain a more critical perspective. Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno were the leaders of the Frankfurt School at the time. Professor Habermas studied philosophy, history and psychology at university and, after receiving his doctorate, began in 1956 to work as an assistant to Adorno at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. In 1964, he succeeded Horkheimer's chair at the University of Frankfurt, and became the preeminent representative of what is known as the second wave of Critical Theory. 3. Major Published Work-The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere Professor Habermas first gained widespread recognition in 1962 with the publication of his major work, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. The "public sphere" to which he refers encompasses the various venues where citizens communicate freely with each other through democratic forums (including newspapers and magazines, assemblies, salons, coffee houses, etc.), which emerged with the formation of a free society out of the nation-state in 18th century Europe. Through these venues, citizens obtained free speech and a free press, allowing them to express their needs and interests directly, which in turn influenced political society. In this way, the public sphere in its original form functioned ideally as a mediator between the private sphere of the people (including family and work) and the national authority, which engaged in arbitrary and despotic politics. However, in the second half of the 19th century, large corporations and the media began to control the state, leading to the "refeudalization" of the public sphere. This decline of the public sphere shifted citizen concern away from democratic political participation and support of the public good, toward consumption and individual interests. In the realm of public opinion, it also resulted in a facade of public awareness created by opinion polls and the media, taking the place of rational consensus based on true debate and mature thought. Professor Habermas also observes that the advance of science and technology in the modern era has been dependent on scientific cognition and technological progress, leading to the stronger dominance of technology over both "external" and "internal" nature. In our complex modern society, this has in turn led to a plight wherein specialists in any given field tend to be another field's amateurs. Through this analysis, Professor Habermas constructs a scathing critique of the degradations of this sort that he perceives in our modern world. 4. Habermas and Marxism Of the many issues raised by Marx, one that Professor Habermas believed should continue to be addressed was the liberation of human beings from poverty and subordination. It would not be unfair to say that his Critical Theory is in fact an effort to refashion Marxism for modern times, even as it inherently criticizes rigid Marxist ideology. The crux of his approach lies in a distinction between labor (practice toward nature) and mutual action (practice toward people). Professor Habermas advocates a reconstructed historical materialism that is rooted in communication and evolution theories, side-stepping Marxism's scientism by strengthening the opportunities for mutual action. In contrast to the "Ich" and "es" ( "I" and "it") jstructure characteristic of technology, he puts forward the "Ich" and "Du" ("I" and "you") structure of mutual action. Professor Habermas also contends that the 19th-century view of the history of class struggle is an out-of-date construct. Calling the technocracy-dominated industrial society "late capitalism," he delineates its "crisis of legitimacy." These views have developed into a socio-technological theme that fundamentally criticizes the current state of social science, which, by relying on systemic rationalization, has facilitated the colonization of people's private lives. 5. Theory of Communicative Action and Discourse Ethics In his work, Theory of Communicative Action (1981), Professor Habermas contends that communication is the key to restoring the ideal form of the public sphere, which declined in the 20th century. It is based on the idea that, within language, norms can be found that transcend control and despotic politics, and that contribute to social democratization. Communicative action is dedicated to the pursuit and achievement of mutual understanding and agreement. Through the understanding of what others say, submission to more persuasive arguments, and cultivation of an ability to reach consensus, it becomes possible to give due recognition to the relative position of each participant while creating the basis for universal social criticism and encouraging a more democratic, social communication and interaction. The type of communication that is of greatest interest to Professor Habermas is "discourse," in which participants critically debate the legitimacy of a postulated assertion. He contends that the following three conditions must be met to ensure that discourse is carried out ethically and correctly. First, debate must be carried out convincingly and without contradictions, with the meaning of words remaining consistent throughout the process. Second, participants must withdraw themselves from positions of self-interest and immediate circumstances, and think objectively about the issue at hand. Third, participants must be able to participate freely on an equal footing, without coercion. These three conditions, which must be met in order to achieve communicative action, comprise Discourse Ethics, which is founded on the following principle: In order to recognize the legitimacy of a given assertion, approval must be obtained, without coercion, from all parties who will be affected by the acceptance of that assertion. In this way, Professor Habermas preserves the universal norms derived from the Enlightenment while constructing a new humanism that is legitimized on the basis of the practical, rational demands of all discourse participants. 6. Influence on Society and Politics Professor Habermas is not simply an armchair theorist. True to his philosophy, he consistently and actively speaks out on actual political and social issues in Germany and the rest of the world, through lectures and discussions as well as articles, in a bid to reach out to society. Especially with regard to the major debates in post-war Germany that had both theoretical and practical components (including the controversies concerning positivism, historians, and German reunification), he always took the side of the minorities and the weak, arguing for the protection of their rights from the standpoint of the civic public sphere. The controversy surrounding historians in the late 1980s was a particularly famous case in point, with Professor Habermas expressing deep apprehensions about the awareness of those who said it was time for Germans to stop feeling guilty about Nazism, and warning that such an attitude could regress into narrow-minded nationalism. For Professor Habermas, the primary goal is international peace. His ideas about the formation of a global public sphere have had a profound influence, not only in Germany with regard to such issues as immigration and reunification, but also in pre-1989 Eastern European communist countries such as Poland and Hungary. The widespread dissemination of personal computers, the Internet, electronic mail, cell phones and the many other electronic media, along with the remarkable advances in other new technologies, has the potential to transform people's awareness, sensibilities and private lives, and together with these, the public sphere. Bearing this in mind, Professor Habermas continues to address a multitude of contemporary global issues, including the break-up of the Soviet Union and extinction of the old communist bloc; the political unification of Europe; the Gulf War; the unipolar dominance of the United States and the changing role of the UN; the dispersion worldwide of readers and viewers of the news dispensed by the mass media; and the possibility of forming a global public sphere out of ideological, philosophical and theoretical perspectives, while confronting the work of such classical philosophers as Kant and Weber. |
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