The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, who died last month, was understandably despondent about much in the autumn of his career. Habermas’s reach across different disciplines was exceptional.

A native of Düsseldorf, he was shaped by the legacy of the second World War, the western Germany that arose from its ashes, the cold war, the European integration project and the disintegration of the Soviet empire. His family conveniently adapted to the Nazi regime (he joined the Hitler Youth) without actively supporting it, but he later became the voice of the democratic left in Germany.

His reputation was built on the concept of Öffentlichkeit, encapsulating the three main concepts central to his arrival on the intellectual and academic scene in the early 1960s: “public space”, “discourse” and “reason”, in order to figure out how “citizens could still exercise collective influence over their social destiny through the democratic process”. He also devoted much attention to the institutions of democracy needed to protect against extremism.

Habermas was subjected to criticism as well as acclaim; his idealism was viewed sceptically by those who pointed to the continued pervasiveness of violence as a reminder of the limitations to enlightened progress and consensus. In Germany, he weighed in heavily on the moral dimension to memory and the legacy of nazism. The embrace of consumerism in western........

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