Volker Gerhardt

What do we mean by “the social public sphere”? Has it really only existed in Europe since the bourgeoisie’s victory over the nobility? These are two questions investigated by Volker Gerhardt in his new book Öffentlichkeit. Die politische Form des Bewusstseins (The Public Sphere. The Political Form of Consciousness). This is both a systematic and historical study of the term Öffentlichkeit (public sphere).
Berlin philosopher Volker Gerhardt describes public life as “a dimension that opens up at the very source of each individual’s conscious activity”, that opens up individuals to counterparts that may be dialogue partners or objects. According to Gerhardt, individual awareness is “the first and elementary form of the public sphere” where each individual “is equally with himself and with all the others.” (...) The social form of the public sphere of interest to the author, who argues anthropologically, is the political form that makes joint action by all possible. Thus, Gerhardt opposes Jürgen Habermas, for whom the “critical public sphere” can only be the result of discourse held on the basis of reasoned argument and according to rules. (…) Volker Gerhardt, instead, declares participation to be the fundamental principle of politics. “It shifts individual self-determination to collective co-determination, so that the community’s activity may be understood as their self-determination.” Fascinating reading on a highly topical subject.

Gabrielle Hoffmann: “Der Einzelne und die Vielen”
© die tageszeitung, 29 January 2013