■ Timeline of Habermas
Steeped in the German philosophical tradition, Habermas understands the importance of the interaction between theory and practice. The theories he constructed not only pointed to the foci of German politics, but also suffered decades of questioning and criticism, actively engaged in the discussion of public topics, and practiced the political and social ideas he believed in throughout his life.
No matter what others think of him, Habermas has maintained an outspoken nature throughout his life. It is this courage and responsibility that is not willing to be cynical that makes Habermas the most remarkable public intellectual of our time.
●1929 Born in Düsseldorf, Germany.
●1949-1954 Studied at the University of Göttingen, the University of Zurich, and the University of Bonn. He received his Ph.D. from his thesis "Absolutes and History: On contradictions in Schelling's thought."
● 1954-1956 Engaged in the profession of freelance journalist, writing for various newspapers and periodicals.
● 1956-1959 Assistant at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research.
● 1961 Appointed associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg.
● 1964 Took over Horkheimer's Chair in Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Frankfurt.
● 1968 Speeches and articles actively promoting the democratization of German universities; disputes with representatives of the student movement. Published Technology and Science as an "Ideology" and Awareness and Interest.
● 1989 Honorary doctorate awarded by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Participate in the debate over the reunification of Germany.
●1994 Emeritus.
1998 Participation in debates on cloning, genetic technology and freedom of will. Published "Post-Ethnic Pattern".
● 1999 Participation in the kosovo war and the debate on genetic technology.
● 2001 Visited China and gave lectures in Beijing and Shanghai. Participate in debates about the public role of religion.
2003 Open criticism of the Iraq War and U.S. unilateral hegemonism.
● 2010 Published several articles and speeches for several consecutive months on the dangers of the premature demise of the European integration project. In September, "Reflections on the European Constitution" was published.
● 2013 The last volume of Habermas's Political Papers (12 volumes), The Vortex of Technocratic Rule, was published.
Reflections on the Historical Responsibility of the Germans: An Indictment of Heidegger
Jürgen Habermas was born at the time of the global economic crisis. The burden of life was constantly heating up ultra-nationalist sentiment in Germany, and the Weimar Republic, once seen as a democratic ideal, was crumbling. Later historians often refer to Habermas and his peers as the "anti-aircraft generation" because their childhood and adolescence were spent during Nazi Germany, and most of them joined the Hitler Youth, a paramilitary organization whose training mission was to get these teenage children to operate anti-aircraft guns and shoot down Allied fighters over the German mainland.
Habermas was no exception, having been a member of the Hitler Youth and having been ordered to operate anti-aircraft guns at the age of 15. In fact, Habermas later revealed that his father was a "passive supporter" of the Nazis during World War II, and also admitted that he once believed in the so-called Nazi worldview as a young man.
However, compared with his peers, the young Habermas still maintains a certain sobriety and alienation from ultra-nationalism. This may be due to the fact that he has a congenital physical defect with cleft lip and palate. On the one hand, the language barrier makes him an "outsider" in mainstream society; on the other hand, the long-term discrimination of the surrounding people has also made Habermas more morally sensitive.
In 1945, World War II ended. This changed the course of German history and completely changed the direction of the German teenager's life. The Nuremberg Trials and documentaries about Nazi concentration camps made Habermas painfully aware of the inhumane persecution and bloody facts of his fellow Germans against the Jews. The huge shock not only made Habermas feel ashamed and saddened by the deep sins of his own nation, but also prompted him to become enthusiastic about participating in the discussion of public affairs, taking Germany's post-war reconstruction as his natural responsibility.
Unlike Jaspers, Hannah Arendt, or Theodore Adorno, Habermas was neither Jewish nor persecuted by the Nazis. His reflections on Nazi history did not come from a naked threat to life, but from a profound introspection that came squarely. What responsibility should the Germans bear in this man-made disaster? Many people did not have the courage to look back on this unbearable past, including the German academic elite at that time, Martin Heidegger.
Heidegger can be said to be Habermas's guide in philosophy, and Habermas's doctoral dissertation takes Heidegger's ontology as the starting point of argument. But when Habermas read a passage from the newly published Introduction to Metaphysics in 1953, the devout student felt "incomparable shock" in his heart. Introduction to Metaphysics includes Heidegger's 1935 lecture at the University of Freiburg. It speaks of "the inner truth and greatness of this movement". Habermas couldn't believe his eyes, and Germans who lived through that era wouldn't misunderstand the fascist meaning of the term.
Without any hesitation, Habermas, who had not yet graduated from college at the time, spent a few days writing a harsh criticism that was published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In this denunciation, Habermas did not vigorously condemn Heidegger's position during the Nazi period, but only angered Heidegger for allowing the 1935 lecture to be published without revision and refusing to admit his mistakes years after the end of World War II.
As soon as this article was published, it caused an explosive discussion in German intellectual circles. Some appreciated his courage, but many more were defending Heidegger. Heidegger himself denies this outright. On the other hand, the debate between Habermas and Heidegger opened the great debate on Germany's historical attitude towards World War II for the next 30 years. In 1986, a large number of historians responded to The New Historical Policy of West German Chancellor Kohl in an attempt to pave the way for revisionist history by acquitting Nazi acts. Habermas, 57, wrote in Die Zeitung that Germans' moral identity is closely linked to "acknowledging shared responsibility for Nazi crimes" and that germany's historical traditions need to be "critically inherited."
Looking back at the young Habermas's critique of Heidegger, the two sides of the debate are so disparate: on the one hand, the famous philosophical master, on the other hand, the 24-year-old university student. But the controversy marks Habermas's official entry into what he calls the "public sphere," fulfilling the responsibilities of a true intellectual for more than half a century.
Rebuilding the public sphere in post-war Germany
Habermas had a clear view of the social role of intellectuals. He believes that a person does not have the identity of an intellectual simply because he is an intellectual authority or has professional knowledge. Intellectuals are made because the person actively participates in the dialogue, providing a point of view for or against a thing. Beginning with questioning Heidegger, Habermas put himself in the midst of all sorts of arguments, believing that within the framework of the "theory of communicative behavior" he had constructed, the truth was always more and more arguable.
In the late 1970s, there was an air of rebellion all over the world. Left-wing radical forces in West Germany were hard to suppress, and a group of left-wing militants split into terrorist organizations that wantonly set fires, kidnappings, and murders in West Germany, eventually triggering the "German Autumn" event that changed the political climate of West Germany as a whole. Some conservative scholars attribute the ideological roots of radicals to the critical theories advocated by the Frankfurt School, which makes Habermas sit still.
In his response to Sontheimer, Habermas rebuked him for linking critical theory with terrorism. This enduring polemic with liberal conservatives was not only an academic debate around the subject of the "Enlightenment", but also a counterpoint in the public sphere against the rapid shift to conservatism in West Germany in the late 1970s.
In this polarized confrontation, Habermas still believed in the existence of "communicative rationality" and believed in a relatively simple criterion: whether intellectuals can be accepted by the public depends entirely on whether the arguments can be verified in public discussion, rather than imposing their own interpretations.
In 1981, Habermas completed the two-volume Theory of Communicative Behavior, a masterpiece that officially introduced him into the ranks of the most concerned thinkers of our time. Over the decades, he has also used the practice of public domain debate to support his institutional kingdom.
Looking forward to a "world civil society" without borders
Beginning in the 1990s, as German unification progressed, Habermas gradually turned his attention to political theory, law, and religious issues. As countless Germans poured into the streets to cheer for the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall, the philosopher, who had been "against the tune," tried to distance himself from a sharp historical turn. The unification of the land worried him, and the idea of power nationalism was slowly revived without people noticing. He prefers the term "unity" to "unification.".
The fait accompli of German reunification has led Habermas to worry that Germany's great power paranoia may recur. His early experiences and reflections on Nazi history made him deeply suspicious of nationalism and the nation-state built on it. Is there a better alternative? Following Kant's conception of global citizenship, Habermas conceived of an ideal future world: a "world civil society" in which social self-regulation is democratic, and the European Union is the prototype of this ideal society.
Today, there may be no one else in the whole of Europe, as Habermas so eagerly awaits the day when Europe can become a political unity without borders.
Habermas argues that the answer to the EU's collapse is definitely not a nationalist retreat like Brexit, but a change in the elitist management model and a strengthening of horizontal decision-making mechanisms. That is, the root of the problem lies in the hegemonic position of major governments such as Germany and France in the EU, depriving most members of the right to make democratic decisions.
After discussions on European integration, Habermas turned to international law. During the 1999 Kosovo War, he was criticized for writing in support of NATO's military intervention. Four years later, during the Iraq War, Habermas criticized the U.S. military policy. After the 1990s, Habermas also participated in debates on public topics such as genetic technology and bioethics, always making himself a controversial figure...
What is it that makes this thinker, who is nearly ninety years old, constantly involved in public affairs throughout his life, and has left his mark on himself in all kinds of fierce debates, even if he is wounded all over his body? Is it a character that is prone to anger? The media often portrayed Habermas as an angry old man. At the very least, Habermas must have known the cost of breaking his silence. In a 2004 interview, he said: "As an intellectual... You have to learn to face people's malice in your life. Sometimes it can endure malice for decades... But if there's one thing you can't tolerate, it's to become cynical. ”
Written by Beijing News reporter Li Yongbo