Foucault/Habermas debate

In this essay the so called Foucault/Habermas debate is recasted from the perspective of critical positions of Foucault to works of Habermas. Our discussion will proceed with question of meaning of reason, rationalization and criticism of reason in both Foucault and Habermas oeuvre. We have demonstrated that 1. Foucault, Contra Habermas, believes in historical multiplicity of incommensurable forms of rationality. And 2. According to Foucault, again in contrast to Habermas, radical critique of historical forms of reason do not necessarily leads to irrationalism. The essay tries to draw the critical distance-making of these two theoretical projects from each other through these two topics and determine the points of confrontations of Foucault and Habermas’ research program.