Excerpt

In The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, the following quotation from Kant, cited in part here, underpinned Habermas's conception of the public sphere as derived from the discourse of reason: [T]he judgments of every understanding must be in agreement (consentientia uni tertio, consentiunt inter se). Thus, whether assent is conviction or mere persuasion, its touchstone externally is the possibility of communicating assent and of finding it to be valid for every human being's reason.¹ This quotation included the word “judgment” in close proximity to “reason,” a proximity at the heart of Kantian philosophy.² Kant, although quite aware…