Acclamation
Habermas’s term for agreeing with an opinion that has already been formed, rather than debating or forming an opinion of one’s own.
Bourgeoisie
The middle classes of a society, which composed the public sphere in the early 19th century
Categorical Imperative
Similar to the golden rule ("do unto others what you would have them do unto you"), this is Kant’s requirement that for an action to be moral it has to be universalizable
Civil Society
A society of citizens, referring to the private individuals and families who participate in a nation’s economy.
Conjugal Family
The household in the private realm of a society, especially ordered around the nuclear family.
Interventionism
A state policy of intervening into the economy through taxes, tariffs, and other policies, rather than allowing free trade across borders.
Intimate Sphere
The space of the family in the private realm of a society.
Legislative
The creation of manmade laws, as in an “artificial” social contract, rather than a natural order of things
Letters
A broad term that includes written documents of many kinds, especially literature and literary criticism
Neomercantalism
A“new merchant” economy that stressed state intervention to stabilize a nation’s wealth by maximizing the profit of exports and minimizing imports.
Occasional Music
Music for a specific occasion, like a religious holiday or a monarchical coronation.
Oikos
A Greek term meaning simultaneously the family, its property, and its household. This is the concept to which our modern sense of a “private” sphere traces back to. It is also the root of the word economy.
Physiocrats
18th century French economists who stressed the importance of agriculture and wanted to ground society in a “natural” order, in contrast to Rousseau’s social contract
Polarization
A separation of something into two contradictory or warring poles. Habermas discusses polarization in terms of the private separating from the public, for instance
Polis
The body of citizens in Ancient Greece, in contrast to the private “oikos.” This is the concept from which our modern idea of the “public” ultimately develops
Protectionism
An economic policy of protecting the industries internal to a state from foreign competition by cutting off or highly taxing international imports
Refeudalization
A return to a society in which the state is integrated with the public and private spheres, as in a feudal society, in which the king ultimately controls everything
Representative Publicness
The kind of publicity characteristic of the Renaissance, in which authorities like the Church or the king display, or represent, their authority publicly through ceremonies, symbols, and other spectacles
Standing Army
Rather than an army enlisted to fight a specific war, a standing army is a permanent reserve of armed forces
Social Sphere
Habermas sometimes using this phrase to refer narrowly to the economic aspects of a nation, the sphere in which private individuals engage in trade and commerce