Language itself anticipates emancipation and universal unconstrained consensus

Evidence

As linguistic beings, Habermas argued, human beings had been raised above nature. The structure of language was an anticipation of emancipation. As linguistic beings, it was possible for us to recognize a priori an interest in autonomy and responsibility. Our first sentence expresses unequivocally the intention of universal and unconstrained consensus.' Language embodied a form of reason’ which simultaneously `means the will to reason’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 606

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what Habermas means by language’s inherent interest in autonomy and responsibility.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that speech itself carries an emancipatory telos is a paradigm-level premise with long argumentative reach.