The fragments and splinters of reason

On the hope for autonomy in Habermas' Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie

Abstract

In This Too a History of Philosophy Jürgen Habermas follows the traces of reason in history. The starting point is the observation that political action lacks a drive for self-determination. At the same time, the recourse to the religious motive of saving justice is blocked in post-metaphysical modernity. Habermas subsequently searches for a secular equivalent for this; and finds it in learning processes in the course of which rational standards have entered systems of interpretation or institutions. Ultimately, it is reason that has emerged in history in this way that is supposed to encourage us to shape the social order autonomously.

In the present article I unfold this political reading of Habermas’ latest work. For this I proceed in four steps: In a first step, I regard the book with a view to Habermas’ critical defense of modernity. In a second step, I discuss its double frontline against philosophical scientism and against the derailing modernization. In a third step, I elaborate the book’s main thread, which consists in a constant desocialization of systems of interpretation. In a fourth step, I clarify Habermas’ main point—the secular appropriation of the promise of saving justice—and conclude that today the democratic constitutional state is supposed to compensate for the aforementioned lack of motivation.