Cardozo Law Review
Abstract
A decade ago Habermas announced a project in his The Theory of Communicative Action. Those who slipped into the habit of talking about this project as his Rechtsphilosophie may be surprised by the sobriety of Habermas's choice for the book's title. The foreword to Faktizitat und Geltung rejects any comparison with Hegel's systematic Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts. Habermas contrasts his "methodical-pluralistic" proposals to the idealistic concepts of Geist and Sittlichkeit, which are unable to account for complex modern societies. The apparent modesty of Habermas's claims is underlined by his subtitle, Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. The old, unitary notion of practical reason, according to which the organization of state and political life provided for the unification of society, and individuals belong to society like the parts to a whole, is to be replaced by a communicative reason whose normative orientation to validity entails no committment to one or another specific institutional structure. Through a systematic reconstruction of the nature and the sociopolitical place of law in complex modem societies, Habermas seeks to reclaim the democratic legacy of the political project that began with the French Revolution. Sober in appearance, Habermas's reach is in fact remarkable.
Keywords
Jurisprudence, Legal History, Politics (General), Sociological Jurisprudence, Social Welfare Law, Ethics
Disciplines
Jurisprudence | Law | Legal History | Social Welfare Law
Recommended Citation
Dick Howard,
Law and Political Culture,
17
Cardozo L. Rev.
1391
(1996).
Available at:
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/clr/vol17/iss4/24