Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between Kant’s pragmatic anthropology and the anthropological foundations of Habermas’s theory of deliberative democracy. I will show that Kant influenced Habermas not only in the realm of ethics and legal philosophy, but they also share similar ideas about the rational and social nature of a human being. I will argue that Kant’s pragmatic anthropology had an indirect rather than a direct influence on Habermas’s concept of communicative rationality and his theory of deliberative democracy.