Jurgen Habermas' Conception of the Reaction Paper

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This is not to suggest that Habermas' theory is irrelevant for the study of rhetoric, but rather that one must regard it as describing only one small portion of the much larger public sphere which actually contains nearly all forms of non-state, public discourse.

In his book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Jurgen Habermas proposes a conception of the public sphere that, while flawed, nonetheless offers a useful starting point for considering how individual opinions are mediated and discussed so that they become part of a public opinion separate from officially sanctioned state authority. Habermas' flaw is focusing exclusively on the emergence of the bourgeoisie over the course of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, not because the bourgeois public sphere he describes is not a genuine phenomenon, but rather that he takes this phenomenon to represent the totality of the public sphere. This flaw has led to a number of criticisms, to the point that the utility and validity of the public sphere as a concept has been repeatedly challenged. Rather than disregard the utility of the public sphere as a critical and theoretical concept, Gerard Hauser, in his essay "Civil Society and the Principle of the Public Sphere," instead argues (like Habermas) that the public sphere emerges from a specific historical development, but unlike Habermas, sees this emergence across society and not linked to the development of any single class.

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For Hauser, the public sphere is defined not by the solidarity of any one class in opposition to the state or other forms of power, but is instead defined by the rhetorical interaction between disparate groups and ideologies, which all contribute to generate a public opinion that is greater than the sum of its parts and acts on its own accord, separate from the will of any given individual or class. In the end, Hauser's theory is more relevant to modern rhetorical theory and contemporary discussions of democracy, because it offers a far more robust and accurate means of understanding the way in which individuals interact within the public space in order to express a generalized will regarding the state and the proper standards of behavior and discourse within that state.

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