Abstract

The beginning of Agnes Heller’s philosophic career is marked by a sincere respect for and fascination with Habermas’ work. Indeed, in "The Positivism Debate as a Turning Point in German Postwar Theory," first published in 1978, Heller praised Habermas for his defense of the authentic concerns of everyday life--including human needs, sufferings, and motivations- - and for his critique of the separation between science and ethics. After these early developments, however, the philosophic history between Heller and Habermas unfolded into an unmistakable dissensus. While the explication of the dissensus between them could be analyzed by considering Heller’s additional articles on Habermas, as well as Habermas’ strenuous critique of Heller’s early book, Everyday Life, I show in this article, rather, the ways in which their contrasting positions open up into two domains in which these two great thinkers come closest to each other: namely, the domains of intersubjective liability and corporeal injurability. I highlight the manner in which intersubjective liability and corporeal injurability have impacted their respective ethical theories. The goal of my analysis is to demonstrate why it is important to engage Heller and Habermas today in this missed dialogue. This goal can be realized, above all, in the analysis of lived experience in the everyday life of the corporeal self as it intersects with the contemporaneity of the eternal present in the temporal composition of historical materialism.