“Habermas in China : theory as catalyst” (Publication, 2007)
Year
2007
Text
Davies, Gloria. Habermas in China : theory as catalyst. In : The China journal ; no 57 (2007). (Hab3)
Type
Publication
Mentioned People (1)
Habermas, Jürgen
(Düsseldorf 1929-) : Philosoph, Soziologe, Professor für Philosophie und Soziologie Universität Frankfurt, Direktor Max-Planck-Institut Starnberg
Subjects
Philosophy : Europe : Germany
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References / Sources
Chronology Entries (3)
| # | Year | Text | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1979-2000 |
Davies, Gloria. Habermas in China [ID D24555]. In China, Jürgen Habermas is regularly described as a theorist of contemporary reason, an advocate of cultural pluralism and a defender of human rights. While many Chinese intellectuals regard Habermas as a prominent Leftist thinker and a 'descendant' of the Frankfurt School, they have nonetheless accorded to his repertoire of ideas a utility beyond the politics of Left and Right. The work of Habermas first attracted the notice of mainland Chinese intellectuals during the initial phase of China's state-led transition from a planned to a market economy between 1979 and the early 1980s. By the early 1990s, Chinese intellectuals acquainted with Habermas's writings were already claiming that his concept of an ever-more inclusive public sphere was highly relevant to their own critical engagement with socio-economic and political injustices emerging out of China'makret reforms. Similarly, Habermas's theory of communicative rationality, originally conceived as a guiding principle for addressing essentially European ethical concerns withhin the multilateral framework of the present-day global exonomy, came to provide these intelleectuals with a handy paradigm for advocating inclusiveness as an ethical norm for Chinese critical inquiry. Habermas's intellectual authority grew in China throughout the late 1990s as more accounts of different aspects of his work were published in the range of Chinese journals that appeared during this time. The diversity of topics addressed was often taken as a positive sign by Chinese intellectuals that mainland scholarship was on its way towards acquiring an international and professional standard. Tu put it in Sinophone terms, these publications on Habermas signaled to Chinese intellectuals that they were gaining strength in their production of 'xueshu' (methodical, systematic and properly referenced scholarship) and 'xueli' (academic theory) in addition to their already well-established capacity for 'sixiang' (thought of an expressive and independent nature). At least three distinct approaches to Habermas can be discerned : one, Habermas is viewed as a 'theoretical resource' (lilu ziyuan for democracy via the concepts of the public sphere and communicative rationality ; two, he is a 'resource' for those who seek to defend and promote a uniquely Chinese modernity ; and three, he has served as theoretical legitimation for Pary ideology. |
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| 2 | 2001 |
Reise von Jürgen Habermas vom 15.-29 April 2001 in China. During his visit, he delivered seven lectures at universities and research institutes in Beijing and Shanghai. Their topics range from human rights, practical rationaliy, models of democracy, and globalization. In addition, he also participated at several symposia with Chinese intellectuals. Gloria Davies : When Jürgen Habermas visited China in 2001, he entered a highly contentious intellectual environment. Habermas became, as it were, a key witness who could be used to attest to the veracity of different claims issued in his name by various Chinese intellectuals. This is strikingly illustrated by the care which which Xu Xouyu, Cao Weidong and others noted the times and venues of events at which they allegedly heard Habermas make particular statements. Their contending claims over what Habermas said or what he stood for, based on the supposed veracity of transcripts of personal conversations or group discussions they had with Habermas, bear little resemblance to scholarly communication. Rather, these publicized disagreements carry distinct traces of the discredited Maoist discours in which political accusations and insinuations were once conducted with deadly seriousness, enlisting verbatim quotations or reported statements as 'evidence' of an individual's innocence or guilt. In the numerous Sinophone accounts of Habermas's visit to China, emphasis is given to Habermas's view of human rights as an ongoing negotiation of individual and collective rights. Yet, ironically, in their supposed common valorization of Habermas's communicative rationality, some intellectuals have clearly attacked each other in highly personal terms. |
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| 3 | 2004 |
Xu, Jilin. Liang zhong zi you he min zhu : dui 'zi you zhu yi' yu 'xin zuo pai' lun zhande fansi. In : Si xiang wen xuan. Luo Gang zhu bian (Guilin : Guangxi shi fan da xue chu ban she, 2004). Er schreibt : "Within a liberal democracy, the balance of power is distributed within the political domain, and balance is produced between [the indifferent sources of] power. In his renewed development of communitarian democracy, however, Habermas added another guarantee for the balance of power : namely, the balance imposed on the state by society. This kind of balance is actualized by the public sphere, which functions as an intermediary between civil society and the political trandition [or state]." |
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Cited by (1)
| # | Year | Bibliographical Data | Type / Abbreviation | Linked Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2000- | Asien-Orient-Institut Universität Zürich | Organisation / AOI |
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