The Right to Justification by Rainer Forst

Rainer Forst is one of Germany’s outstanding contemporary scholars of moral, political and social thought and a prominent member of the most recent generation of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. We share deep commitments to the Habermasian program of a discourse theory of ethics and are indebted to the intense, but short-lived, exchange between the Rawlsian and Habermasian paradigms of justice, democracy and human rights. The following comments on Forst’s The Right to Justification are offered in the spirit of a critical conversation against the background of deeply shared premises.1 If what follows may sound too much like a querelle de famille (a family quarrel), I plead guilty. But as we all know from experience, such quarrels can also be the most intense ones! This article will focus on three points: (1) First, I will outline Forst’s construction of “the right to justification” in the light of the principles of reciprocity and generality and will offer a critique of his understanding of these criteria; (2) second, I will examine Forst’s construction of the relationship between the moral and the ethical; and (3) finally, I will turn to Forst’s program of “political constructivism” and assess his interpretation of the relationship between human rights, justice and democracy.