As the title of this paper suggests, I intend to draw attention to what, in my opinion, lies at the core of the shared notion in both Kant and Habermas. This will be the concern of the first part of my paper. My focus...As the title of this paper suggests, I intend to draw attention to what, in my opinion, lies at the core of the shared notion in both Kant and Habermas. This will be the concern of the first part of my paper. My focus will then shift, in the second part, to Habermas＇s views on freedom. In due time, however, as the provocative question mark in the title suggests, the notion of freedom becomes questionable. I will conclude by examining Frankfurt＇s notion of coercion in order to show that Habermas＇s notion of freedom is not only questionable but can, at times, be coercive. Throughout this paper, the reader shall be encouraged to see and possibly appreciate that there is a degree of similarity between the two thinkers. Shall the reader be hard put to gauge this similarity or shall the reader promptly appreciate it and take it into consideration？ I will argue--and demonstrate--that a certain amount of similarity can readily be drawn between the two. I will leave it up to the reader to decide whether this similarity is a forced similarity or whether this is a similarity that one perceives at a first glance and thus ought to consider. This paper could better be appreciated if the reader has reasonable knowledge of the Hegelian critique of Kant＇s Categorical Imperative.展开更多
文摘As the title of this paper suggests, I intend to draw attention to what, in my opinion, lies at the core of the shared notion in both Kant and Habermas. This will be the concern of the first part of my paper. My focus will then shift, in the second part, to Habermas＇s views on freedom. In due time, however, as the provocative question mark in the title suggests, the notion of freedom becomes questionable. I will conclude by examining Frankfurt＇s notion of coercion in order to show that Habermas＇s notion of freedom is not only questionable but can, at times, be coercive. Throughout this paper, the reader shall be encouraged to see and possibly appreciate that there is a degree of similarity between the two thinkers. Shall the reader be hard put to gauge this similarity or shall the reader promptly appreciate it and take it into consideration？ I will argue--and demonstrate--that a certain amount of similarity can readily be drawn between the two. I will leave it up to the reader to decide whether this similarity is a forced similarity or whether this is a similarity that one perceives at a first glance and thus ought to consider. This paper could better be appreciated if the reader has reasonable knowledge of the Hegelian critique of Kant＇s Categorical Imperative.
