Introduction to Habermas's Discourse Ethics

http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/cavalier/Forum/meta/background/HaberIntro.html

[Note: portions of the following are from "The Political Computer: Democracy, CMC, and Habermas," in Ess, ed. Philosophical Perspectives on Computer -Mediated Communication, (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1996), 197-230.]

Discourse Ethics: Three Principles

These conditions are stated more formally by Habermas in the form of three principles:

Principle 1: a principle of universalization, one that intends to set the conditions for impartial judgment insofar as it "constrains all affected to adopt the perspectives of all others in the balancing of interests" ("Discourse Ethics," 65). The principle of universalization itself states:

All affected can accept the consequences and the side effects [that] its [a proposed moral norm's] general observance can be anticipated to have for the satisfaction of everyone's interests (and these consequences are preferred to those of known alternative possibilities for regulation). (ibid, 65)

Principle 2: "Only those [moral] norms can claim to be valid that meet (or could meet) with the approval of all affected in their capacity as participants in a practical discourse " (ibid, 66).

In short, the conditions for the practical discourse out of which universally valid norms may emerge include the participation and acceptance of all who are affected by such norms, as such norms meet their interests.

Principle 3: Consensus can be achieved only if all participants participate freely : we cannot expect the consent of all participants to follow "unless all affected can freely accept the consequences and the side effects that the general observance of a controversial norm can be expected to have for the satisfaction of the interests of each individual" (ibid, 93).

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As David Ingram puts it, community members' participation in discourse will be "unobstructed by ideological prejudices, temporal limitations, and external domination - be it cultural, social, political, or economic" (Ingram, 1990, 148).