'Radicalising' the public sphere : from Habermas to Adorno

Abstract

Jurgen Habermas's theory of communicative action continues to animate discussions on the nature of democracy in contemporary societies. Indeed there has been rarely a work of serious scholarship about the evolution of modern society that is not informed by the writings of this German philosopher. Yet there is a growing realisation that the evolution of contemporary societies has been accompanied by fundamental changes that have exerted strains on the relevance of Habermas's political philosophy. This fact has been popularly highlighted by that body of mainly French thought that comes under the rubric of poststructuralism. As a consequent there has been suggestion that the tradition of critical theory that Habermas is irrelevant. The dissertation agrees with the first argument: that the changes in contemporary societies have rendered Habermas's model of discursive democracy problematic. However, the conclusion of critical theory being in its twilight does not follow from this. The problem that is embedded within Habermas's oeuvre is well noted within the Frankfurt School. In fact, one of its original members anticipated the problems currently encountered by a communicative theory of society and puts forward a programme of critique that would ensure the continued relevance of Habermas and the critical tradition that he belongs to. The dissertation argues that a turn to Adorno's negative dialectics would address some of the debilitating features of Habermas's theory. Specifically, the incorporation of the insights of Adornos' dialectics into the theory of communicative action and by extension to the Habermasian public sphere would go a long way in realising the goals inherent in Habermas's political philosophy. This is to say that the current exercise stems from the conviction that an Adornian critique of communicative ethics, by way of a negative dialectics, offers improvements to Habermas's model of discursive democracy. Show more