The great German philosopher was also the last surviving exemplar of a generation of postwar intellectuals formed by the experience of the second world war. A member of the Hitler Youth as a boy, Habermas then made it his life’s work to philosophically ground the democratic values which are now under threat again. A renewed focus on the great insight that drove his thinking would be an appropriate legacy. Habermas’s related concept of the public sphere, where rational debate can take place and disagreements be brokered, implied pluralism, civility and inclusion. In illiberal times, it also reads like a necessary philosophical line in the sand.

Source: The Guardian March 19, 2026 00:57 UTC