20th Century Ethics (Sess 5) - Juergen Habermas, Can't We All Get Along

This Meetup is the fifth in our series on 20th Century Ethics.

“While retaining the categorical imperative after a fashion, discourse ethics scales it down to a principle of universalization (U). In practical discourses (U) plays the part of a rule of argumentation – For a norm to be valid, the consequences and side effects of its general observance for the satisfaction of each person’s particular interests must be accepted by all.” – Habermas

For 2026 we will be launching a series of sessions focused on 20th Century Ethics. The series will build progressively over the course of the year, but individual sessions can be explored independently. The goals of the series are to a) move beyond the ‘greatest hits’ of historical philosophical works into more contemporary 20th Century debates, b) create a landscape of the diverse traditions in phenomenology, virtue ethics, critical theory, and neo-Kantianism, c) explore modern issues of identity, communication, justice, and animal rights, and d) stage opportunities to contrast different thinkers critically. While the content is advanced, the format and discussion style still affords individuals new to these works and, indeed, new to philosophy in general an excellent opportunity to learn and discuss in structured discussion-based environment.

The series will include

• (Jan/26) Immanuel Kant – a foundational ‘grounding’ for the series
• (Feb&Mar/26) Max Scheler – critique of Kant’s formalism with an emphasis on value theory.
• (Apr/26) Paul Ricoeur – identity and ethical responsibility with a focus on selfhood and justice.
• (May/26) Juergen Habermas – socially embedded ethics.
• Alasdair MacIntyre – challenges Kantian universality with Aristotelian virtues ethics.
• Phillippa Foot – naturalistic virtue ethics
• Christine Korsgaard – moral norms and an argument for contemporary Kantian Ethics.
• Onora O’Neill – global justice and bioethics.
• Epilogue for the series – a comparative look at the threads of autonomy, responsibility, virtue and discourse in a comparative roundtable.

In Session 5, “Can’t we all get along”, we will build on last month’s reading of Ricoeur’s Oneself as Another, which focused on respect to the other in just ‘institutions acknowledging the role and importance of our shared world and experience. Ricoeur introduced our ethics journey to the validity to the social in shaping model of the respect and justice.

In this Meetup, we extend our consideration of the social by considering Juergen Habermas’ model of discourse ethics. Habermas, a philosopher and social theorist of the Frankfurt School, is perhaps best known for his work Transformation of the Public Sphere that advances a philosophical framework grounded in interpersonal linguistic communication. For our discussion we will be looking at how interpersonal communication can establish an ethical grounding by reading and discussing Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. I will be using MIT Press edition (1990) translated by Lenhardt and Nicholson.

The following sections will be discussed

• Ch 3, Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification pg. 43-109.
• CH 4, Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, pg. 116-188
• (Optional) Ch 5, Morality and Ethical Life, pg. 195-211.

Chapter 3 gives the formal structure, while Chapter 4 gives the psychological and sociological grounding. Chapter 5 is an interesting essay on Hegel and Kant, which is worthy of some time.

In 2026 we will begin recording the sessions to create an archive summarization of sessions. I am truly excited about 2026 and hope that you will participate in the series and help make it a fulfilling experience for all of the participants.

Hope to see you at the session.