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Jürgen Habermas

Martin Beck Matustik · Encyclopaedia Britannica · 2026

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Type: Web page
Author: Martin Beck Matustik
Accessed: 2026-09-01

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EstablishedHabermas (1929–2026) published his habilitation as The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962), succeeded Max Horkheimer in the Frankfurt chair in 1964, and directed the Max Planck Institute in Starnberg from 1971 to 1981.EstablishedHabermas held that communication aims at mutual understanding through uncoerced agreement, and in Between Facts and Norms (1992) developed a discourse theory of law and democracy with formal and informal public spheres.TheoryHabermas holds that every speech act makes claims to truth, normative rightness and sincerity that a hearer can accept or contest, and that discourse should be insulated from all forces except the 'unforced force of the better argument'.TheoryIn Between Facts and Norms Habermas described democracy as 'two-tracked': informal public spheres form opinion that percolates through channels into parliamentary bodies, which turn it into law.