THICAL REFLECTION: HABERMAS’ DISCOURSE ETHICS
German philosopher Jürgen Habermas suggests a rational group process through which people can determine right from wrong—a different kind of decision than Hirokawa and Gouran usually study. In order to develop guidelines for ethical action, the Frankfurt School critical theorist pictures a diverse group of people engaged in public discourse. Habermas’ ethical approach seeks an after-the-fact discussion about what we did in a particular situation and why we decided to do it. Being ethical means being accountable.21
Habermas assumes that people within a given culture or community can pretty much agree on the good they want to accomplish, and over time they’ve built up practical wisdom on how to achieve it. For example, your campus news- paper reporters assume that it’s good for students to know more about what’s oing on within the school’s administration (“the people’s right to know”) and that guaranteeing confidentiality to insiders is the best way to find out (“protect- ing their sources”). This newsroom common sense is a good place to start doing journalistic ethics, but reporters’ justification of the practice typically lacks reflec- tive rigor. It often doesn’t take into account the interests of everyone affected by their stories.
Habermas’ discourse ethics sets up a discursive test for the validity of any moral claim. The person who performed an act must be prepared to discuss what he or she did and why he or she did it in an open forum. This deliberative pro- cess is a two-stage process of justification and application. The actor must reveal the general ethical principle that he or she used to justify the action and then show why it was the appropriate thing to do in those particular circumstances. Habermas imagines an ideal speech situation where participants are free to listen to reason and speak their minds without fear of constraint or control.22 He’s convinced that the validity of any ethical consensus can be reached only to the extent that three requirements are met:23
1. Requirement for access. All people affected by the ethical norm being debated can attend and be heard, regardless of their status. That means that donors, administrators, professors, students, and minimum-wage staff at the school are welcome at the table without prejudice.
2. Requirement for argument. All participants are expected to exchange their points of view in the spirit of genuine reciprocity and mutual understand- ing. They aren’t merely trying to advance their own interests but are trying to figure out whether an action serves the common good.
3. Requirement for justification. Everyone is committed to a standard of uni- versalization. What makes ethical claims legitimate is their “acceptance not only among those who agree to live with and by them but by anyone affected by them.”24
Habermas understands that thoroughly noncoercive dialogue is a utopian dream, yet he finds his conception of the ideal speech situation helpful in gauging the degree to which a discussion is rational. This, of course, is a major goal of Hirokawa’s, Gouran’s, and Dewey’s. The trick is getting group members to do it.