JÜRGEN HABERMAS or AGREEING ON AGREEING

ENJOY PHILOSOPHY MEETS WEEKLY EVERY SUNDAY BETWEEN 11.30 AND 14.30 AT EDUARDO VII PARK, HERE:** https://goo.gl/maps/5e3jKFEweXkNvDdK6

ITS THE GARDEN BETWEEN THE “CARLOS LOPES PAVILLION” AND THE “PRAIA NO PARQUE” RESTAURANT AT EDUARDO VII PARK.

THIS IS A GROUP FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN ENJOYING PHILOSOPHY.

NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE IS REQUIRED.

ONLY ETERNAL CURIOSITY AND THE PLEASURE OF KNOWLEDGE.

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We will learn, debate, enjoy and investigate philosophers and diverse themes from the philosophical perspective. Each reunion is structured as a conversation among all attendees about that day s philosopher softly moderated by the organizer. The conversation will kick-off from the very brief suggested reading providing easy access to all attendees both to the philosopher and the conversation.

Let´s be greek and dive today on…

JÜRGEN HABERMAS (1929-2026), the sadly recently deceased German Political philosopher, probably the most influential european critical voice after WWII.

Habermas started as assistant of Theodore Adorno at the Frankfurt´s University Institute of Social Research inheriting the powerful legacy of the Frankfurt school that developed there (Adorno, Marcuse, Walter Benjamin): a relentless attempt to understand the power of reason and turn it into an ethical force. The very complex confluence of Ethics and Reason is the Holly fire where the Frankfurt School tribe debated. Habermas, probably the 2nd most famous German of the 20th century seems to have devoted his life to compensate the disasters of the 1st one: Habermas was a thinker obsessed not only with the power of reason to bridge the gaps and reach agreements, but overall, metaphysically, with the concrete possibility of agreeing.

Agreement is not only necessary but Possible.

Agreement is possible ! - seems to shout his work.

That is Jürgen Habermas at its core.
And his work is the relentless attempt to philosophically and politically root his conviction.

But How ? How is that possible ?
How can we justify norms and political decisions when no shared religious or metaphysical worldview can be taken for granted?

Thats is the question his proposal of Discourse Ethics tries to answer. Reason and Communicational principles will pave the way. Quite a statement, quite a belief, coming from someone who was 10 years old when WWII started.... or maybe, maybe... precisely because of that.

Habermas argues that the legitimacy of norms depends on their ability to gain the rational assent of all those affected by them through free and inclusive dialogue.
At the heart of Habermasian discourse ethics lies a simple idea: a norm is valid only if all affected could accept it as participants in a practical discourse conducted under fair conditions. The focus shifts from individual moral reasoning to intersubjective communication, from "What do I believe is right?" to "What could all of us reasonably agree upon?"
But which are those fair conditions he talks about? Do they exist in the real world ?

Let´s think with Jürgen...