The “Great Refusal” and Social Theory, 1961–1981 101
a composite model drawing on hermeneutics, pragmatism, and crit-
ical social theory that would become the basis for his more extensive
treatments of the same subjects, Habermas envisioned the dialogue
about the social role of science and technology as a “hermeneutic”
conversation between citizens and experts.^57 There is a dialectic,
in other words, between what we want to do and what we are able
to do, but the “process of translation” between science and politics
requires that citizens be included in the discussion.
[A]... long term research and education policy... must enlighten
those who take political action about their tradition-bound self-
understandings of their interests and goals in relation to socially
potential technical knowledge and capacity. At the same time it
must put them in a position to judge practically, in the light of these
articulated and newly interpreted needs, in what direction they
want to develop.... This discussion necessarily moves in a circle.^58
Habermas’s choice of the language of “horizon” appears to be
derived from Hans-Georg Gadamer’s seminal work, Truth and
Method, which Habermas read in Heidelberg in 1961.^59 Habermas’s
early work on decisionism and technocracy is the political matrix
from which his other philosophical initiatives in the 1960s related
to hermeneutics and pragmatism stemmed.^60
HABERMAS AND THE STUDENT MOVEMENT,
PHASE ONE: AGAINST TECHNOCRACY
The history of West German student protest in the 1960s can be
divided neatly into the before and after of a crucial event, namely,
the shooting by Berlin police of a student peacefully demonstrating
against a visit by the Shah of Iran in June 1967. After the death of
the student, Benno Ohnesorg, the pace of protest accelerated mark-
edly. June 1967 was also a significant turning point in Habermas’s
career: Before it, Habermas was the recognized leader of the student
left; afterwards, he was viewed by it with suspicion and distrust.
Shortly after Ohnesorg’s funeral, Habermas charged student leader
(^57) Ibid., 136–9; TRS, 74–6.
(^58) Ibid., 136; TRS, 74.
(^59) “Interview with New Left Review,” DNU, 214.
(^60) Ibid.