Habermas and green political thought

Conclusion

My principal ecocentric objection to Habermas's social and political theory has been that it is thoroughly human-centered in insisting “that the emancipation of human relations need not require or depend upon the emancipation of nature.” ¹ Although Habermas has moved beyond the pessimism and utopianism of the first generation of Critical Theorists by providing the conceptual foundations of the practical and emancipatory cognitive interests, he has, as Whitebook points out, also “markedly altered the spirit of their project.” ² Yet it is precisely the “spirit” of the early Frankfurt school theorists, namely, its critique of the dominant “imperialist” orientation toward the world (rather than its critique of a simplistically conceived idea of science) and its desire for the liberation of nature, that is most relevant to - and provides the most enduring Western Marxist link with - the ecocentric perspective of the radical Greens.