Jürgen Habermas, Eric Weil et les limites politiques de la société civile contemporaine : contribution à la réflexion sur le sens de l'engagement politique citoyen

摘要

The present investigation on “Jürgen Habermas, Eric Weil and civil society political boundaries” is intended to be a “contribution to the reflection on the meaning of citizen political engagement”. Indeed, by giving civil society the political vocation of legitimation of the state, the German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas, posits that speaking in the form of public speaking exercise of reason would be enough to trigger a Communicational Action making the citizen the actor and the recipient of the laws and institutions that govern him. But this achievement does not happen by itself. It depends, according to the French philosopher Eric Weil, of special conditions created by nature and functioning of modern society.The main aim of this investigation which dares a virtual dialogue between the two thinkers, is to show that if the global triumph of the idea of civil society contributes to the acceleration of the advent of a universally administered society within the limits of simple reason, the achievement of the goal remains undermined by the omnipresence of violence and nonsense in contemporary political sphere.Therefore, to get out of this double impasse to which the public exercise of reason is exposed, dialogue between Jürgen Habermas and Eric Weil ends with the primacy of the question of meaning. An outcome which is justified and therefore justifies the citizen political engagement. It is by continuing to act reasonably, non-violently, alone and/or with others for the advent of a Real State, despite the persistence of irrationality, violence and nonsense that the citizen contributes to the renewal of the meaning of its individual and collective existence.