Tolérance, sécularisation et pensée postmétaphysique. Habermas et les Lumières

This article examines the Enlightenment legacy of Habermas’ philosophy from the perspective of the question of tolerance. In his latest writings on religion (in particular Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion, 2005, and Nachmetaphysisches Denken II, 2012), Habermas acknowledges the new vitality of religions in Western democracies. He discusses the latest reflections of sociologists of religion on the process of secularization and its link with the modernisation of contemporary societies, which has hitherto been taken for granted. This leads him to question the potentialities of the Enlightenment and its “culture”. In doing so, is the Frankfurt philosopher indulging in a kind of “defeatism of reason” (Jean-Claude Monod)? Or should we rather see Habermas’s doubts as a testimony to his new interest in the pre-political sources of social solidarity?