Context: The text discusses the influential Frankfurt School of philosophy, led by Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, and Jürgen Habermas, and their critical views on various philosophical ideologies.
Fact Check: The Frankfurt School was a group of scholars known for their critical theory and social research. Jürgen Habermas is a prominent German philosopher known for his contributions to philosophy and social theory.
Frankfurt is the seat of the ECB. It also was the seat of one of the most influential schools of philosophy in European history, the Frankfurt School. With Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Jürgen Habermas formed this holy trinity that deeply shook the foundations of Enlightenment philosophy and thus Western philosophy.
Every new school begins by destroying the previous one. In 1955, Theodor W. Adorno sparked controversy by writing: “To write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric” – as a veiled critique of the terrifying poem “Fugue of Death” by Paul Celan. In these tumultuous 1950s, Jürgen Habermas fiercely criticized Martin Heidegger’s conservative idealism that could only serve Nazi power.
Later, he criticized Kant and his principle of universal morality, replacing it with an “ethic of discussion” that makes dialogue between citizens the source of universal morality. Habermas summarizes the ethics of recognizing the value of the opposing position, the morality of discussion that underpins democracies and is lacking in our sick European democracies. The “public space” he coined must be a space for meeting, not confrontation. Politics should not aim for buzz, but for constructing truth.
He is a Montaigne who lived through totalitarianism, a philosopher in the age of GAFAM monopolies. His most fierce criticism was of Enlightenment reason, which the tragedies of the 21st century, of which he was a direct witness, forbade him to believe in. Ultimately, his thought led him to see in Europe the salvation of nation-states incapable of agreeing on fundamental issues, from human rights protection to what he was the first to call the “world public space.”
To those who find his work inaccessible, I recommend reading “On the Ethics of Discussion,” a series of remarks in line with the Fragments of German literature. It is a dazzling experience on every page, an invitation to think differently, to shift our certainties. The masterpiece of a philosopher engaged in politics.
