Eccentric modernity? An Islamic perspective on the civilizing process and the public sphere

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Salvatore
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Islamic Perspective ◽  
Civilizing Process ◽  
Norbert Elias ◽  
The Public Sphere

This article engages with Johann Arnason’s approach to the entanglements of culture and power in comparative civilizational analysis by simultaneously reframing the themes of the civilizing process and the public sphere. It comments and expands upon some key insights of Arnason concerning the work of Norbert Elias and Jürgen Habermas by adopting an ‘Islamic perspective’ on the processes of singularization of power from its cultural bases and of reconstruction of a modern collective identity merging the steering capacities and the participative ambitions of an emerging urban intelligentsia. The Islamic perspective provides insights into the interplay between civilizing processes and the modes through which cultural traditions innervate a modern public sphere. By revisiting key remarks of Arnason on Elias and Habermas, the Islamic perspective gains original contours, reflecting the search for a type of modernity that is eccentric to the mono-civilizational axis of the Western-led, global civilizing process. While this eccentric positioning entails a severe imbalance of power, it also relativizes the centrality of the modern state in the civilizing process and evidences some original traits of the public sphere in a non-Western context.

What Scope for Ethics in the Public Sphere? Principled Autonomy and the Antinomy of Practical Reason

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-498
Author(s):  
Maureen Junker-Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Public Reason ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
The Public Sphere

Concepts of ‘public reason’ vary according to the underlying understandings of theoretical and practical reason; they make a difference to what can be argued for in the public sphere as justified expectations to oneself and fellow-citizens. What is the significance for the scope of ethics when two neo-Kantian theorists of public reason, John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas, propose a reduced reading of the ‘antinomy’ highlighted in Kant’s analysis of practical reason? The desire for meaning, unrelinquishable for humans, is frustrated when moral initiatives are met with hostility. Kant resolves the antinomy between morality and happiness by invoking the concept of a creator God whose concern that our anticipatory moral actions should not fail encourages the hope on which human agency relies. Defining the scope of ethics by the unconditional character of reason ( Vernunft) rules out the minimisation of ethics to what can safely be expected to be delivered.

Member of a school or exponent of a paradigm? Jürgen Habermas and critical theory

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 252-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Müller-Doohm
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Communication Theory ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Constitutional State ◽  
The Public Sphere

The label ‘Frankfurt School’ became popular in the ‘positivism dispute’ in the mid-1960s, but this article shows that it is wrong to describe Jürgen Habermas as representing a ‘second generation’ of exponents of critical theory. His communication theory of society is intended not as a transformation of, but as an alternative to, the older tradition of thought represented by Adorno and Horkheimer. The novel and innovative character of Habermas’s approach is demonstrated in relation to three thematic complexes: (1) the public sphere and language; (2) democracy and the constitutional state; and (3) system and lifeworld as categories for a theory of modernity.

Behind the Mask of the Secular

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 153-175
Author(s):  
Masayoshi Sumika
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Religious Language ◽  
World War ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Do So

Jürgen Habermas, who popularized the concept of the “post-secular,” advocates that all citizens should be free to decide whether they want to use religious language in the public sphere. However, he adds the proviso that citizens who do so must accept that religious utterances ought to be translated into generally accessible language. Habermas presents this concept of “translation”—or the institutional translation proviso—as a way of bringing religious citizens into the public sphere. In his opinion, the public sphere and/or public institutions should not be open to any movement that tries to legitimize the nation on religious grounds. This paper shows that we can find logic and rhetoric that correspond to Habermas’s proviso in courtroom arguments over religion in Japan after World War II. By surveying these disputes, this paper examines whether or not the intended aims of the institutional translation proviso are achieved.

The Hijab Debate in the Norwegian Press: Secular or Religious Arguments?

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cora Alexa Døving
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Translation Process ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Religious Motivation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Symbols ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
The Public Sphere

Do religious debaters challenge the secular public sphere? This article is an analysis of the largest religion related debate in Norway: the debate about the hijab and the use of religious symbols in the public sphere. The article is empirically founded on the debates in 2009 that began with the question about to which degree the hijab could become part of the Norwegian police uniform for those who would wish to use it. The analysis is mainly centred on the arguments of the hijab wearers: to what degree is their religious motivation translated into a secular language? The empirical examination will show that Muslim debaters arguments can be characterized by a striking absence of references to religious concepts, and a just as striking use of secular ones. The article suggests that the lack of religious argumentation is an expression of an Islamic secularism rather than a result of a translation process. The hijab wearer's arguments are presented in the light of John Rawls’ and Jürgen Habermas’ thoughts about the need for translation—and its price.

The Institutionalization of Reason

2005 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 95-104
Author(s):  
Frederick Rauscher
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Public Sphere

Kant's description of an enlightened society as involving the free use of reason in public debate has received due attention in recent work on Kant. When thinking of Kant's view of Enlightenment, one now conjures up the image of free persons speaking their mind in what is now often called the ‘public sphere’. Jürgen Habermas is well known for taking Kant to be committed to wide participation of individuals in public debate. Kant's own suggestion for a motto for the Enlightenment, ‘Sapere aude’, seems to speak to all citizens when urging them to ‘Have courage to make use of your own understanding’ (8: 35).

scholarly journals Three Phases of the Theatrical Public Sphere in Estonian Theatre

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-91
Author(s):  
Eva-Liisa Linder
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Political Theatre ◽  
Cultural Traditions ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
Civic Awareness ◽  
The Public Sphere

The concept of the public sphere by Jürgen Habermas has inspired humanities and theatre studies. Estonia, as a small post-totalitarian nation state, proves the concept especially relevant as its recent history reveals three different phases of the theatrical public sphere. 1) Theatre as a secret forum. In Soviet times, theatre served as a political and ideological tool, providing a place for keeping the national memory and consolidating society. 2) The active and technical use of the public sphere by newly awakened political theatre NO99 since 2005. 3) The agonistic theatrical public sphere. During the past decade, a whole wave of projects have discussed national identity with concurrent antagonisms: globalization vs nationalism, civic vs ethnic nationalism, the Estonian vs Russianspeaking community. Theatre has commented on two concepts of national identity, e-Estonia and Organic Estonia, innovative digitalization and cultural traditions. The discursive public sphere has led to increased civic awareness and structural changes in the developing democracy, supported integration, and anti-xenophobia in Estonia. At the same time, two main characteristics of the theatrical public sphere have been highlighted: spatiality and political relevance

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