Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas (German: Jürgen Habermas, pronunciation: [ˈjʏʁɡn̩ ˈhaːbɐmaːs]; June 18, 1929 - March 14, 2026), one of the most important contemporary philosophers and sociologists in Germany, is a backbone of the second generation of the Frankfurt School of Western Marxism. Habermas served successively as a professor at the University of Heidelberg, a professor at the University of Frankfurt, director of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt, and director of the Lifeworld Institute of the Max Planck Society. He retired in 1994. He inherited and developed Kant's philosophy, devoted himself to rebuilding the "Enlightenment" tradition, regarded modernity as an "unfinished project", put forward the famous theory of communicative rationality, and conducted profound dialogue and powerful criticism of postmodernism.