Week 5: Pre Blog

Of all the scholars we've read so far, I have found Habermas to one of the more unique writers. This is not because I agree with him more than the others; in fact, this is the contrary, but it is because his views vastly differ from those we've analyzed in the past. 

The world view of Habermas' that fascinates me the most is that he believes in capitalism, or at least, in a world with it: 

"If I am not mistaken, the chances for [a society without capitalism] are not very good. More or less in the entire Western world, a climate has developed that furthers capitalist modernization processes as well as trends critical of cultural modernism."

Where many scholars believe that capitalism hinders the progression of society and takes away values of things like art and thought, Habermas seems to believe the opposite. If I understand correctly, he sees capitalism as less of a quantification of things, but as a natural evolution towards success. The society he lived in let capitalism thrive and he saw no reason why this would not be the case. 

However, he is not blindly in a favor of a for-profit society, because he also takes issue with economic processes that call the shots more than people seem to. This is where he believes in a reveal of the "public sphere", which he thinks can better democracy. This would be governed by individual and societal logic, and take the power away from the state and put it into the people's hands.

I'm a bit confused as to how Habermas opposes state power but doesn't see much of an issue with capitalism, as capitalism benefits those of wealth and power. I enjoyed reading his work, but I want to do more research on his ideas for solutions to the problems he identifies, and how those would be implicated.

Comments