Jurgen Habermas

The public sphere is an arena where citizens can come together, exchange opinions, and deliberate on matters of common concern.

Truth is a regulative idea.

The lifeworld is the horizon of our communicative practice.

Communicative action is oriented toward mutual understanding.

Systematically distorted communication is a form of power.

The colonization of the lifeworld by the system is the central problem of modernity.

The task of critical theory is to reconstruct the conditions for possible emancipation.

Reason is inherently communicative.

Modernity is a project that is not yet completed.

The ideal speech situation is a counterfactual presupposition of communicative action.

Deliberative democracy requires a public sphere that is free from domination.

The media are the nervous system of the public sphere.

Religion is not simply a matter of private belief but has a public function.

The post-secular society is one in which religion retains a public relevance.

The communicative power of citizens is the only source of legitimate law.

The European Union is an experimental arrangement for a new form of post-national democracy.

Philosophy can no longer lay claim to being the sole interpreter of the world.

The facticity of validity claims means that we cannot but raise them.

The uncoupling of system and lifeworld is a pathological development.

The public sphere is not a static entity but a dynamic process.