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The Foucault–Habermas debate is a dispute concerning whether Michel Foucault's ideas of "power analytics" and "
genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
" or Jürgen Habermas' ideas of " communicative rationality" and " discourse ethics" provide a better critique of the nature of ''power'' in society. The debate compares and evaluates the central ideas of Habermas and Foucault as they pertain to questions of power, reason,
ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
,
modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular Society, socio-Culture, cultural Norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the ...
,
democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
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civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.social action.


Overview

The debate was a dialogue between texts and followers; Foucault and Habermas did not actually debate in person, though they were considering a formal one in the U.S. before Foucault's death in 1984. Habermas' essay ''Taking Aim at the Heart of the Present'' (1984) was altered before release in order to account for Foucault's inability to reply. Habermas wrote: Nancy Fraser's contentious, but oft-quoted, claim that Foucault's work is a mixture of "empirical insights and normative confusions" exemplifies the most common strategy of critique by those favouring Habermas. It attempts to demonstrate the incoherence of Foucault's practice of critical reflection while at the same time appropriating those aspects considered valuable. Demonstrating this incoherence is necessary from the Habermas position since he sought to establish ''the'' form of critical reflection, whereas Foucault sought to establish only ''a'' form of critical reflection.Samantha Ashenden and David Owen. 'Introduction: Foucault, Habermas and the Politics of Critique' in Ashenden, S. and Owen, D. (eds) ''Foucault contra Habermas: Recasting the Dialogue between Genealogy and Critical Theory''. Sage Publications. London, 1999. In response, many of Foucault's advocates argue the Habermasian critique presupposes what it seeks to show and that the critique is based on a misunderstanding of Foucault's work. In 1999, Ashenden and Owen published an edited volume of papers entitled ''Foucault contra Habermas: Recasting the dialogue between genealogy and critical theory'' in an attempt to re-engage the debate and shift the dialogue to new ground. Specifically, they aimed to 1) illuminate the stakes of the encounter between the different practices of critical reflection, 2) evaluate some major criticisms of genealogy made in the course of the debate, and 3) offer a critical response to Habermas' position from the perspective of Foucault's practice in relation to contemporary political-philosophical and political issues. The publication of Foucault's Collège de France lectures in the early 21st century has also served to recast the Foucault–Habermas debate since the Ashenden and Owen volume. The lectures on biopolitics and governmentality, as well as Foucault's relation to Kant and neoliberalism has resulted in a number of scholars revisiting questions of normativity, resistance and critique in Foucault's work.


See also

* Cassirer–Heidegger debate * Gadamer–Derrida debate * Positivism dispute * Power (social and political) * Rationality * '' Rationality and Power'' * Searle–Derrida debate * Chomsky-Foucault debate


References


Bibliography

* Ingram, David. "Foucault and Habermas on the Subject of Reason". In Gutting, Gary, ed. (1994). ''The Cambridge Companion to Foucault'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 215–261. . * Kelly, Michael ed. (1994). ''Critique and Power: Recasting the Foucault/Habermas Debate''. Cambridge: MIT Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Foucault-Habermas Debate Post-structuralism Jürgen Habermas Michel Foucault Philosophical debates Hermeneutics