In memory of a philosopher who taught us how to think
The death of the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas this week invites more than a moment of remembrance. It invites a question: What can his thought still teach us about the technological moment we are living through?
Habermas did not write about generative artificial intelligence. Yet one of the central distinctions in his philosophy helps illuminate an essential aspect of the age of intelligent machines. Not all forms of rationality are the same. Some forms of reasoning are oriented toward calculation. Others are oriented toward understanding. Artificial intelligence forces us to look again at that difference.
The Expansion of Calculation
Habermas described one form of reasoning as instrumental rationality. It is the kind of reasoning we use when we try to achieve a goal as efficiently as possible. It asks practical questions: what works? What produces the best outcome? How can a process be optimised? This logic has shaped much of modern society. It lies behind engineering, technological systems and many forms of scientific modelling.
Artificial intelligence represents an extraordinary expansion of this capacity. Machines can process immense quantities of information, detect patterns and generate plausible responses in seconds. In that sense, artificial intelligence dramatically expands our ability to produce answers. But producing answers is not the same as understanding them.
When Answers Come Before Understanding
A system can now generate convincing explanations about history, economics or philosophy. It can construct arguments that appear coherent and even persuasive. Yet something important is missing.
The machine does not understand the meaning of the words it produces. It does not grasp the implications of the argument it constructs. And it does not stand behind the claims it generates. In a strict sense, it produces answers without participating in understanding.
Habermas described another form of rationality that belongs to human beings. He called it communicative rationality. This form of reasoning appears when people try to justify their claims to one another, explain their reasons and interpret meaning together. It is not primarily about efficiency. It is about making sense of things.
An Older Philosophical Insight
In this respect, Habermas stands within a much older philosophical tradition. Already in antiquity, Aristotle distinguished between different forms of knowledge. Some forms of knowledge are technical. They concern procedures, methods and the production of results. But Aristotle also described another form of intelligence. He called it phronesis, practical wisdom — the ability to judge well in situations where rules alone are not enough.
Around the same time, Plato described education in a similar spirit. In the famous allegory of the cave, learning is not the simple accumulation of information. It is a turning of the mind toward reality. The Greeks had a word for this intellectual shift: periagoge — a turning of the soul.
Education, in this sense, is not simply about receiving answers. It is about learning to see differently.
The Space of Judgment
This is where judgment appears. Judgment requires interpretation. It involves weighing arguments, recognising uncertainty and deciding what makes sense in a concrete situation.
Artificial intelligence can help us explore possibilities. It can suggest explanations, detect patterns and generate answers we might not have considered. But it cannot decide what those answers ultimately mean. It cannot justify them in a public conversation. And it cannot assume responsibility for their consequences.
Those tasks remain human.
Artificial intelligence expands our capacity to generate answers.
Education must therefore help students undergo a kind of intellectual periagoge — a turning of the mind from searching for answers to exercising judgment about them. Artificial intelligence may generate answers, but education exists to form the minds capable of understanding and judging them.