''Between Facts and Norms'' () is a 1992 book on deliberative politics by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

political philosopher Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from de ...

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas ( , ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt S ...

. The culmination of the project that Habermas began with ''

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere ''The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society'' () is a 1962 book by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas. It was translated into English in 1989 by Thomas Burger and Frederick Lawrence. An impo ...

'' in 1962, it represents a lifetime of political thought on the nature of

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

Summary and background

''Between Facts and Norms'' offers an original reconstruction of the

philosophy of language Philosophy of language refers to the philosophical study of the nature of language. It investigates the relationship between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of Meaning (philosophy), me ...

(drawing on the author's ''Theory of Communicative Action'', first published in 1981), a theory of

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

, an understanding of

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

theory, reflections on

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Ancient ...

of politics that goes beyond, but without discarding, the liberal tradition.Cf. Thomas Kupka, Jürgen Habermas' diskurstheoretische Reformulierung des klassischen Vernunftrechts,
Kritische Justiz
' 27 (1994), pp. 461-469, highlighting the continuity with the natural law tradition in Habermas' ''Faktizität und Geltung'', 1992. This continuity was controversial at the time, see the reply by Habermas' PhD-student

Klaus Günther Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus * Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American baseb ...

, Diskurstheorie des Rechts oder liberales Naturrecht in diskurstheoretischem Gewande?,
Kritische Justiz
' 27 (1994), pp. 470-487. At the heart of the book is a reconsideration of the relation between the

philosophy of law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

and

political theory Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from d ...

.Books in Review: ''Between Facts and Norms'' by Prof. David M. Rasmussen of Boston College
/ref> Criticized for his "

discourse ethics Discourse ethics refers to a type of argument that attempts to establish normative or ethical truths by examining the presuppositions of discourse. The ethical theory originated with German philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel, and v ...

" first propounded in 1990, Habermas, in this book, attempts to draw out the political, legal, and institutional implications of his theory, asserting that

ought to be complemented by a theory of

socialization In sociology, socialization (also socialisation – see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is the process of Internalisation (sociology), internalizing the Norm (social), norm ...

that accounts for its

institutionalization In sociology, institutionalisation (or institutionalization) is the process of embedding some conception (for example a belief, norm, social role, particular value or mode of behavior) within an organization, social system, or society as a w ...

. ("Discourse ethics" is Habermas's attempt to explain the

universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of N ...

and

obligatory An obligation is a course of action which someone is required to take, be it a legal obligation or a moral obligation. Obligations are constraints; they limit freedom. People who are under obligations may choose to freely act under obligations. O ...

nature of

morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...

by evoking the universal obligations of

communicative rationality Communicative rationality or communicative reason () is a theory or set of theories which describes human rationality as a necessary outcome of successful communication. This theory is in particular tied to the philosophy of German philosophers ...

.) Habermas contends that law is the primary medium of social integration in modern society, and is power that extracts obedience from its subjects. As power alone cannot grant it its legitimacy in modern society, law derives its validity from the

consent of the governed In political philosophy, consent of the governed is the idea that a government's political legitimacy, legitimacy and natural and legal rights, moral right to use state power is justified and lawful only when consented to by the people or society o ...

. Habermas further accommodates his critics on the role of law by making a distinction between

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

and morality. In a modern pluralist culture, he argues, normative issues should be separated from issues of the good life. Only when various ethical traditions come into conflict with one another, as they inevitably do in a modern pluralist culture, do normative issues arise that have implications for everyone. In Habermas' deliberative paradigm, law stabilizes society, but only through the universal voice of democracy. ''Between Facts and Norms'' concludes with a proposal for a new paradigm of law that goes beyond the

dichotomies A dichotomy () is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets). In other words, this couple of parts must be * jointly exhaustive: everything must belong to one part or the other, and * mutually exclusive: nothing can belong simu ...

that have afflicted modern political theory from its inception, and that still underlie current controversies between so-called liberals and republicans.

References

External links

Jürgen Habermas
a
Marxists.org
{{Authority control 1996 non-fiction books Books in political philosophy German non-fiction books Works by Jürgen Habermas

Summary and background

See also

References

External links