Habermas

'A Busman's Holiday'

Well...I just had to drag my family members around Frankfurt (Goethe) university today. This was ostensibly to pay homage to one of my heroes Professor Jurgen Habermas. He is Emeritus now but still active and providing a critique of extreme capitalism and neo-conservative doctrines. We also visited the original Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, which was a rather insignificant building which directly contradicts the massive contribution the academic faculty have made to modern philosophical thought, political, social and in particular critical social theory. This goes back to the early part of the 20th century with Horkheimer, Adorno and numerous others critiquing the work of Kant, Hegel and more latterly Marx. Habermas then took on the challenge of the 'Modernist' project and still argues for a form of political democracy, free and undistorted speech and public spheres where effective discourse can flourish. The university itself is on several sites in Frankfurt.

This photograph was taken in one of the old pre-war buildings (rebuilt after the war with American money) - which also houses the department of philosophy. It is a lovely campus with lots of open space, nice buildings, paternoster lifts! , interesting statues and water features. There were not many students today - they must all be on their vacation - and only one possible academic in sight (someone dressed in a bright yellow suit!!)

An interesting day - tracing the roots of modern thought in the field of Critical Social Theory. I hope some of it rubs off !!