The Systematic Question: Can Reason Be Defended Without Dogmatism?
This text is a preview of History of the Reception of Hegel, volume II, to be published in 2026 by Reflexivity Press.
The Shared Concern
Habermas and Taylor share a concern: to defend modernity without denying its pathologies. To rescue the Enlightenment without abandoning its self-criticism. To assert reason without falling into dogmatism.
Postmodernism had seen the pathologies – domination, exclusion, violence in the name of reason. But its remedy was worse than the disease. Whoever rejects reason altogether can no longer criticize the pathologies either.
The Difference
Habermas argues procedurally: reason is the structure of mutual understanding. What counts is not the content but the procedure – domination-free discourse, in which all those affected have a voice.
Taylor argues substantively: reason is rooted in sources, in strong evaluations, in what really matters. Procedure alone is not enough – we also need a sense of what is at stake.
This difference shapes the later debate. Habermas’ students (such as Axel Honneth) develop the procedural line further. Taylor becomes the key reference point for communitarianism, which emphasizes the importance of community and tradition against procedural liberalism.