We previously noted Raymond Geuss's skepticism, now here's a friendlier take from philosopher James Gordon Finlayson (Sussex). Finlayson notes, "Habermas has never been one to endear himself to the academic and political establishments. That's partly because he voices opinions even when they are unpopular. For example, as early as 1953 – presciently we now know – he called out Heidegger, the doyen of German philosophy, for being an unrepentant Nazi," which of course he was. (Habermas never, to my knowledge, called out the other unrepentant Nazi, more his contemporary, Gadamer.) Habermas was undoubtedly a valiant voice against Germany's disgrace and those who would whitewash it. But in another way, as I have argued elsewhere, he was the perfect vehicle for Marxism in a country where communism was made illegal in the 1950s. As I wrote:
In West Germany, [the repression of communism] culminated with the 1956 decision of the Constitutional Court declaring the German communist party, and any successor party, to be “unconstitutional." With legal strictures and professional sanctions in place, it is hardly surprising that the primary Marxist intellectual movement in Germany, the Frankfurt School, should devolve into an academic Kantian exercise. Whatever criticisms one might make of Habermas, his work could not fall within the scope of the 1956 decision declaring communism unconstitutional.
[1] Aug. 17, 1956, 5 Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts [BVerfGE] 85. An English translation of the decision, can be found in, Gerd Pfeiffer and Hans-Georg Strickert, eds., Outlawing the Communist Party, trans. W.P. von Schmertzing (New York: The Bookmailer, 1957), at 225-227.
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