Abstract

The general aim of this essay is to respond to Habermas and to reexamine the Hegelian idea that the issues of justification and application cannot really be separated. In what follows, I will review the similarities that Habermas acknowledges between discourse ethics and Kant's moral philosophy. Second, I will argue that the differences that Habermas sees between himself and Kant are inessential. Habermas' rethinking of the universalist project does not move it beyond Kant in any fundamental way. Finally, I will argue that discourse ethics, despite Habermas' protests, is just as susceptible to Hegelian critique as Kant's moral philosophy.