La pensée post-métaphysique face au « défaitisme de la raison » Une discussion de Entre naturalisme et religion, de Habermas

Habermas’ late reflections about the role of religions in the public sphere of the contemporary democracies want to incite the « secular » or atheist citizens to open themselves more broadly to the ethic and symbolic resources of the monotheistic religions, in order to face mainly two threats : the loss of solidarity in the neoliberal capitalism, and the possibilities of manipulation of the living beings through the biotechnologies. In this paper, we discuss the relevance of Habermas’ arguments, and we wonder about the evolution of the author of the Theory of communicational acting. Indeed, Habermas seems today overcome by what he called previously a “defeatism of reason”: Can’t the secular rationality supply ethical and political norms likely to face the dangers pointed out by Habermas?