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Aeon ·For the curious

Reasoning Together

by Emilie Prattico

Published 2026-09-25 10:00:00+00:00

If right and wrong depend on people arguing things out, what happens when everyone leaves the room?

0:00 / 20:44 · Narrator Sulafat

Context

Published on 25 September 2026, this essay remembers the philosopher Jürgen Habermas as a teacher who treated thinking as a public act. He spent his life arguing that reason survives only when people actually sit together and owe each other explanations. His recent death frames a much sharper problem about the modern internet. If moral truths depend entirely on people reaching an agreement, what happens to right and wrong when a society retreats into digital silos and stops talking entirely?

Show notes

An essay on the philosopher Jürgen Habermas and his lifelong argument that democratic legitimacy requires open, public reasoning. Drawing on years as his student, the author details how Habermas practiced this method himself, routinely revising his theories of truth and the public sphere when challenged by critics. The piece closes with his final warnings about how digital platforms fracture the shared reality necessary for political agreement.

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