History II / The Late Eighteenth Century and the Debate over Modernity
Practice question · Fill in the blanks

Complete the account of the eighteenth-century public sphere.

Habermas described a public ______ formed in coffeehouses, reading societies, journals and salons, in which private people reasoned publicly about matters previously reserved to the ______. What made it consequential was less the opinions expressed than the existence of a ______ in which authority could be discussed by people who held ______ of it.

Word bank: sphere · state · forum · none · church · all

Hints
  1. The key noun is in the name of the concept.
  2. The participants’ distinguishing feature is that they were not officials.
Show the answer

Habermas described a public sphere formed in coffeehouses, reading societies, journals and salons, in which private people reasoned publicly about matters previously reserved to the state. What made it consequential was less the opinions expressed than the existence of a forum in which authority could be discussed by people who held none of it.

Why

The structural claim is that a habit of public reasoning among people without office is itself a political fact, prior to any particular demand. Once the practice exists, the question of who is entitled to judge the government has already been answered in practice, whatever the law says.

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