Habermas’ Post-Metaphysical Thought in Politics

Abstract

The post-metaphysical thought emerged out of criticism of metaphysics. By proposing transition from metaphysical components of human thought, it is trying to get rid of metaphysical limitations and binds. Politics and political thought has been one of the most important areas in which this idea has been progressing. In fact, the main presumption of post-metaphysics is that objective and real social phenomena such as politics should not be assessed with metaphysical standards. Metaphysical standards are built on a pre-arranged order and, therefore, they try to adapt the world of politics to fixed and unchanging principles and standards. On the opposite, the post-metaphysical thought claims that the rationality of politics should not be assessed according to pre-arranged and pre-experimental principles and values. In this way of thinking, rationality, more than anything else, is related to trends and processes in which political components, especially the consensus and agreement arising from social interactions, play a crucial part. The post-metaphysical thought has many theoretical origins all of which have been busy building the post-metaphysical thought from past to present. Jurgen Habermas is one of those people who have characterized this thought with such markers as precedence of action over theory, negation of logocentrism, linguistic twists, and attention to contextual wisdom.

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