A Justice Site
Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP
Caliifornia State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: August 31, 2001
Latest Update: September 1, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Sharing the SiteCopyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors: August 2001.
"Fair use" encouraged.
- A Policeman Was Killed Today Entry by Nichole Williams
- Is Habermas' View of the Enlightenment like Plato's? Entry by Bobi Lott
- Outsider Theory-Expanding Public Discourse: Wow! Entry by Lisa J. Stevens
A Policeman Was Killed Today
On Friday, August 31, 2001, Nichole Williams wrote:
I know how to use the site. There is so much to look at. I spent my whole lunch break at work looking at everything. I really enjoyed the Poem Gallery. I did get a little teary-eyed when I read A Policeman Was Killed Today. My boyfriend is a policeman and I worry about him every time he goes to work.Nichole Williams
On Friday, August 31, 2001, jeanne answered:
Yes, Nichole. That's one of my favorites, too. Thank you for alerting us all to it again. love and peace, jeanne
Is Habermas' View of the Enlightenment like Plato's?
On Saturday, September 1, 2001, Bobi Lott wrote:
Greetings Jeanne,Let me start off by saying how I look forward to the readings in your courses. . . . I do have a number of questions, but I will try and answer most of them before I lay them on you. One of my questions is regarding Habermas. I read through the Outsider Theory...Is Habermas' view of Enlightenment similar to the Platonic view? I have not finished the chapter in the Farganis book as yet. I do understand that through public discourse colonialism and imperialism can be exposed and justice may prevail.
Please let me know if I am off course.
Thank you.
(is this e-mail too long?)On Saturday, September 1, 2001, jeanne responded:
Hi, Bobi. Delighted to meet you. I can't answer whether Habermas' view of the Enlightenment is like the Platonic view, because I'll have to go look up the Platonic view. But if you'll tell me about the Platonic view, I'll tell you about the Habermasian view. Fair? Bear in mind that the Enlightenment came with the age of science.Meanwhile, here's a quick summary of the view of Englightenment shared by the Frankfurt School, whose representative Habermas is today:
The Enlightenment is the name we give to that period during the 19th and 20th Centuries when we discovered scientific method as a means of understanding what had appeared to us earlier as magic or the work of the Gods (deux ex machina). That led to all the many wonderful discoveries of the health, technology, industrialization and all the benefits to a way of life we thought would provide a utopia in which the needs of all could be met.The Second World War and Nazi genocide were a major clue that the Enlightenment had not brought utopia. Horkheimer and Adorno, Jewish social scientists and philosophers, who were driven out of Germany by the Nazi persecution of Jews, continued their studies in the U.S., carrying on the work of the Frankfurt School. Adorno wrote the Authoritarian Personality, an attempt to understand and explain how one human could turn so violently on another.
Horkheimer and Adorno became terribly disillusioned as they realized that the wonders of the Enlightenment could serve evil as well as good. Habermas, on the other hand, has a more hopeful approach to today's world. He acknowledges the double-edged sword that the Enlightenment offers, but he believes that through reasoned public discourse we can learn to live peacefully and non-violently together. He has an intense political commitment to see that what happened in the Nazi regime never happens again in Germany.
Habermas understands the postmodern concern with metanarratives that say that there is some overriding truth that applies to everything. But he disagrees with the postmodern concern that everything is relative. He insists that we need at least a metanarrative of criticism, or how to make joint decisions that involve us all, like those of not killing one another, and of sufficiently equal distribution of the world resources that the survival and dignity of every person is respected.
Now, does that coincide with Plato's view?
love and peace, jeanne
Related References:
- 2. Characteristics of the Authoritarian Personality (Horkheimer and Adorno) Scroll down about a third of the way to find this. Note that it is part of Paul Gingrich's sociology course at the University of Regina.
>Outsider Theory-Expanding Public Discourse
On Saturday, September 1, 2001, Lisa J. Stevens wrote:
Subject: Outsider Theory-Expanding Public DiscourseWow jeanne...that is quite a piece of work! I read through it tonight, but am printing to reread tomorrow....thanks for all the organization of ideas...that eludes me....I appreciate reading it...night.