Jurgen Habermas Quotes
From a moral point of view, there is no excuse for terrorist acts, regardless of the motive or the situation under which they are carried out.
The only knowledge that can truly orient action is knowledge that frees itself from mere human interests and is based in Ideas - in other words knowledge that has taken a theoretical attitude.
Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems.
The task of universal pragmatics is to identify and reconstruct universal conditions of possible mutual understanding.
The speaker must choose a comprehensible expression so that speaker and hearer can understand one another.
Reaching and understanding is the process of bringing about an agreement on the presupposed basis of validity claims that are mutually recognized.
I shall develop the thesis that anyone acting communicatively must, in performing any speech act, raise universal validity claims and suppose that they can be vindicated.
Today's Islamic fundamentalism is also a cover for political motifs. We should not overlook the political motifs we encounter in forms of religious fanaticism
Since our complex societies are highly susceptible to interferences and accidents, they certainly offer ideal opportunities for a prompt disruption of normal activities.
The difference between political terror and ordinary crime becomes clear during the change of regimes, in which former terrorists become well-regarded representatives of their country.
Disappointment over nationalistic authoritarian regimes may have contributed to the fact that today religion offers a new and subjectively more convincing language for old political orientations.
Partisans fight on familiar territory with professed political objectives to conquer power. This is what distinguishes them from terrorists
The state is in danger of falling into disrepute due to the evidence of its inadequate resources.
Since the intervention in Afghanistan, we suddenly began to notice when, in political discussions, we found ourselves only among Europeans or Israelis.
Some of those drawn into the holy war had been secular nationalists only a few years before. If one looks at the biographies of these people, remarkable continuities are revealed.
The misery in war-torn Afghanistan is reminiscent of images from the Thirty Years' War.
The clever, albeit fragile, coalition against terrorism brought together by the U.S. government might be able to advance the transition from classical international law to a cosmopolitan order.
If the September 11 terror attack is supposed to constitute a caesura in world history, it must be able to stand comparison to other events of world historical impact.
A threatened nation can react to uncertain dangers solely through administrative channels, to the truly embarrassing situation of perhaps overreacting
I cannot imagine a context that would some day, in some manner, make the monstrous crime of September 11 an understandable or comprehensible political act
Historically, terrorism falls in a category different from crimes that concern a criminal court judge.
I take as my fundamental starting point the fundamental distinction between work and interaction
After September 11, the European governments have completely failed. They are incapable of seeing beyond their own national scope of interests.
Manhattan... capital of the 20th century, a city that has fascinated me for more than three decades.
Perhaps at a later point important developments will be traced back to September 11. But for now we do not know which of the many scenarios will actually hold in the future.
Instead of the international police action we had hoped for during the war in Kosovo, there are wars again - conducted with state-of-the-art technology, but still in the old style
Only by externalization, by entering into social relationships, can we develop the interiority of our own person.