2001 Peace Prize
Jurgen Habermas
-By Achim Bahnen, Germany
Frankfurt 1966: In the overflowing
auditorium a student asks if the lecturer could express himself a little more simply, as
he was very difficult to understand. Half of the room erupted in applause. He would do his
best, said the speaker, to make himself understood. The half of the room that had not
applauded booed. The lecturer's name was Jurgen Habermas, the heir to the Frankfurt School
of thought, whose "critical theory" fascinated young academics on the eve of the
student movement. That, of all people, the architect of the theory of "Communicative
Action" was so often misunderstood in his own country is, despite an unwieldy style
especially in his early writings, not a problem of language-a conservative academia and
other commentators quite deliberately wanted to misinterpret the icon of the academic
left. On the philosophical level the figure of "unrestrained discourse" was made
to look ridiculous because people confused legitimate claims for recognition with the
factual parameters of debate. And politically, responsibility for the Red Army Faction,
RAF, was laid at the feet of those who were critics of society, even though Habermas had
already denounced "the fascism of the left" as early as the summer of 1967.
Nonetheless, he has always been provocative, engaging himself in the debate as a result of
philosophical or political polemics, or even helping to initiate debate, as was the case
in 1986 with the historians' dispute about the causes and singularity of the Holocaust.
THE FACT THAT Jurgen Habermas is now a
recipient of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is a late acknowledgement of
societal transformation and republican normality, because it undoubtedly means that
Germany's most important living philosopher is to be honored. He was recently awarded an
honorary doctorate by Harvard University, and was an honored guest in China in the spring.
A philosophical citizen of the world, Jurgen
Habermas was born on June 18, 1929 in Dusseldorf. He took his doctoral degree in Bonn in
1954 and at first worked as a freelance journalist until Theodor W. Adorno's attention was
drawn to his writings and he brought him as an assistant to the institute for Social
Research. With his "precocious" lectures on Marx, Habermas won not only friends
there. Horkheimer criticised the "exaggerated idealism" and "lack of
societal understanding" in Habermas. He submitted his postdoctoral thesis,
"structural Change in the Public", at a Marburg in 1961, before gaining
Horkheimer's chair in 1964. Since that time Habermas has constantly followed his own
particular path, the path of a "metaphysical" thinker who has nonetheless been a
convinced believer in the "unity of reason", and it is a path which has yet to
come to an end. After becoming Professor emeritus in 1994 he in no way rested on past
laurels but "preserved the intellectual curiosity of a 20-year-old," as American
philosopher Richard Rorty said. The basic consideration in Habermas's thought can be
summed up by asking about the conditions under which relationships of power in society can
be rationally shaped and further developed in an emancipating way. Habermas's thought
therefore, also has to be seen as a reaction to Auschwitz. The revolutionary impulse which
motivated him initially quickly transformed itself into an evolutionary impulse. Habermas
sooncame to see the state constituted under the rule of law as an historic achievement.
The "public" retained a tofold importance, as both a subject of reflection and a
means by which to do it.
HABERMAS IS A PUBLIC THINKER par-excellence,
whom Ralf Gahrendorf succinctly describes as a "fellow human being"'. Three
years ago the recipient of the Pace Prize, Martin Walser, attacked him in his contentious
address of thanks. When Jurgen Habermas stands up to deliver his speech on October 14 at
the Paulskirche, one can expect an address no less perspicacious in its meaning for the
current intellectual climate.
Text courtesy: Deutschland E4 No 4/2001
August/September. Embassy of Germany in Kathmandu.
The "Silicon
Valley" in Grenoble
-Annik BIANCHINI, France
Because it has created links between
university, research and industry, the region of Grenoble is a leader in the transfer of
technology and the creation of start-ups. The prefecture of the Ise're department is the
main research center after the Paris area and a major European actor in innovation in the
area of microelectronics, nanotechnologies and biotechnologies.
Nestling between the mountain masses of
Belledonne, the Chartreuse and the Vercors, the Grenoble "Silicon Valley" today
has a place as the French all-round champion of microelectronics. The Grenoble region has
thus managed to bring together some of the essential ingredients to create a center for
industrial innovations and activities: collaboration between the university, research and
industry, with a very high potential in manpower and know-how. "The Schneider
Electric and Merlin-Gerin firms have managed to establish links with universities and
research laboratories", Herve Fradet, deputy head of the Agency for studies and the
promotion of the Isere, AEPI, explains.
The LETI, one of the most important
laboratories of the Atomic Energy Commission, CEA, specialized in electronics, technology
and instrumentation, has been working with industry ever since it was created and has
signed research contracts with numerous enterprises in the region. It was created in 1968
and has 1,000 people, 8,500 square meter of production rooms and registers more than 120
patents a year. The other star laboratory of Grenoble, the TIMA, which is a joint
laboratory of the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, INPG, the National
Scientific Research Center, CNRS, and the Joseph-Fournier University, UJF, has also acted
as a bridge between research and industry.
A good fifteen start-ups or so in France:;
The permanent transfer of technologies to industry has led to some real success stories.
" In the 1980s, the LETI transferred a lot of technologies to STMicroelectronics, the
seventh largest manufacturer of integrated circuits in the world. Since the 1990s, it
transfers increasingly in the form of start-ups", Jean Therme, the chairman of the
CEA asserts. Indeed, in the most innovative sectors of micro-systems such as
bio-micro-processors and optical telecommunications or radio frequencies, there are a good
fifteen or so start-ups in France and especially in Grenoble whose reputation has spread
worldwide.
One of the LETI's most successful offshoots,
SOITEC, the world leader for the manufacturer of silicon on insulators, a material used in
mobile telephony, was quoted on the Stock Exchange last year. Tronic's Microsystemes
manufactures and supplies silicon components for medical applications and for optical
interconnections. Memscap is quoted in the Wall Street Journal as one of the most sought
after enterprises in Europe in the sector of microsystems for optic fibres while Teem
Photonics manufactures components on glass for optic telecommunication networks and Iroc
Technologies, an offshoot from TIMA, sells processes for scecuritised microsystems for
aviation.
From the outset, these enterprises have been
able to use the equipment in the laboratories from which they spring. Alditech, one of the
LETI's latest start-ups, is located on the site of the Atomic Energy Commission which
rents out its production rooms to it. Tronic's is housed in a building alongside the LETI.
With Opsitech, the CEA-LETI inaugurates the setting up of a new-economy-style offshoot.
But that is not al . the enterprises in this
Silicon Valley in the Isere department rival in ingenuity to attract researchers, enginers
and technicians,. It is an excellent opportunity for people with a Ph.D. in Science,
experienced engineers and young graduates. We guarantee that engineers will work on the
best available material, Eric Dupont, chairman and managing director of Iroc Technologies,
points out. Foreign investors have been won over by this scientific and technological
environment and have built their factories at the foot of the mountains. These include
Applied Materials, the world leader for semiconductor production equipment, the American
Lam Research which manufactures engraving equipment and the Japanese Tel.
Moreover, an innovation center in
nanotechnology , called Minatec, is beign created. Nanotechnology, which is a very recent
science and studies the infinitely tiny, already has applications in sectors uch as
materials, screens, cosmetics and health, but there is still room for development in other
areas. By 2005, more than 3,000 people, researchers and students, engineering
undergraduates, lecturers and industrialists will cohabit in an area of 20 acres (8
hectares), south of the site of the Atomic Energy Commission. Half of them are already on
the spot buy spread out among the various centers. The investment is expected to amount to
a t total cost of nearly 800 million francs for the partner public establishments, CEA,
CNRS, INPG and UJF, and the local authorities. The aim is to increase the number of
start-ups. Grenoble, the former Olympic city, will thus be confirmed as an established
center of excellence in Europe. |
