Jurgen Habermas
(born June 18, 1929) is a
German
philosopher
and
sociologist
, or someone who studies different societies. He uses a type of theory called
critical theory
, where he studies how people use power. He also uses the theory of American
pragmatism
, which studies if something is true or not by the effects of actions. He is known for his work on the theory of the
public sphere
. He studies power in democracy, and politics. He also studies how people develop a society through language and
communication
, and tries to understand how that society and the government work together.
Habermas was born in
Dusseldorf
,
North Rhine-Westphalia
,
Germany
.
Habermas lived in
Gummersbach
, near the city of
Cologne
until his
graduation
from
gymnasium
. Jurgen was raised in a
Protestant
religious family because his grandfather was in charge of the seminary, or religious school, in Gummersbach, Germany. Jurgen Habermas went to the universities of Gottingen (1949/50), Zurich (1950/51), and Bonn (1951/54). He earned a doctorate (
PhD
)
[1]
from Bonn in 1954 with his work
Das Absolute und die Geschichte. Von der Zwiespaltigkeit in Schellings Denken
(The absolute and history: on the contradiction in
Schelling's
thought).
From 1956 on, he studied
philosophy
and
sociology
under the
critical theorists
Max Horkheimer
and
Theodor Adorno
at the
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
. Because Horkheimer had asked Habermas to make some changes to his
dissertation
. Habermas did not want to do this, and thought that the
Frankfurt School
was not correct in its views of modern culture. Habermas left the
Frankfurt School
(a school of thought rather than one made of bricks and mortar).
He finished his
habilitation
, or highest academic degree, in
political science
at the
University of Marburg
under the Marxist
Wolfgang Abendroth
. His
habilitation
work was entitled,
Strukturwandel der Offentlichkeit; Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der Burgerlichen Gesellschaft
(published in English in 1989 titled
The structural transformation of the public sphere: an inquiry into a category of bourgeois society
). In 1961, he became a
privatdozent
in Marburg. He began working as a "extraordinary professor" (professor without a chair) of philosophy at the
University of Heidelberg
.
Hans-Georg Gadamer
and
Karl Lowith
got him this job. In 1964 Habermas returned to Frankfurt to take over Horkheimer's job in philosophy and sociology.
He was in charge of the
Max Planck Institute
in
Starnberg
(near
Munich
) in 1971, and worked there until 1983, two years after the publication of his main work,
The Theory of Communicative Action
. Habermas then returned to his chair at Frankfurt as head of the Institute for Social Research. After retiring from Frankfurt in 1993, Habermas wrote many books and articles. In 1986, he received the
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize
of the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
, which is the highest honour awarded in German research. He is a "Permanent Visiting" Professor at
Northwestern University
in Evanston, Illinois, and "
Theodor Heuss
Professor" at
The New School
,
New York
.
Habermas was awarded The
Prince of Asturias Award
in Social Sciences for 2003. Habermas was also the 2004
Kyoto Laureate
in the
Arts
and
Philosophy
section. He traveled to
San Diego
and on March 5, 2005, as part of the
University of San Diego
's
Kyoto Symposium
, gave a speech entitled
The Public Role of
Religion
in Secular Context
, about the separation of
Church and State
. He received the 2005
Holberg International Memorial Prize
(about € 520,000).
- ↑
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2004-02-03
. Retrieved
2009-02-26
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
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