Learning Democratic Reason: The Adult Education Project of Jürgen Habermas

Abstract

The work of Jürgen Habermas is often cited in adult educational literature as underpinning dialogic traditions and practices central to the field. But to many adult educators the density of Habermas's analysis and complexity of his language limit his influence on their practice. This article's intent is to render a comprehensive analysis of the totality of Habermas's work that demonstrates its enduring applicability for the adult education movement's traditional concern with developing in learners and citizens the critical reasoning necessary to democracy. In so doing the author relies strongly on Habermas's own words (rather than on secondary interpretations of these) and attempts to communicate Habermas's complex ideas in an accessible manner.