Sunday, August 19, 2007

Java and Habermas

No Coffee - Jakob Norberg, Eurozine (via Andrew Sullivan)

I always thought that Habermas missed the historical context of the English coffeehouses of the late 17th century. When coffee was first introduced to England in 1650 the country was just coming out of their own civil war. The Restoration was about ten years out but by the time Cromwell's head hit the floor the nation was looking to avoid the polemical thinking that had brought destruction to their homelands. The places where coffee was first introduced were often places where business was discussed. Soon enough those coffeehouses became centers of information as they were not only places to discuss business but to sell pamphlets and broadsheets containing the latest news on shipping and industry. These two elements--the rise of an anti-polemic attitude and alcohol-free information centers--resulted in the creation of a public discourse. While I think Habermas's placement of the rise of public discourse is correct, I think he misses the historical context that allowed for such a discourse to arise. Moreover, I think Habermas misses the peculiarities of the English coffeehouses and how they differed from the French salons of the following century.

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