How Consensus Is Possible

In the face of cultural diversity and political and economic globalization,different individuals and groups are adhering to different values in public communication life.In this context,how to seek common ground while reserving differences and reach a consensus has been fully valued by the academic circles.Scholars represented by Toynbee believe that there is no real consensus.Scholars represented by Wall argue that different members can reach consensus in some areas and in some areas.Habermas further proposed that in the face of social conflicts,the most feasible countermeasure is to move towards a broad consensus of intersubjectivity based on mutual understanding.Starting from communicative rationality,Habermas emphasizes that people should follow the guidance of rationality in communication;Starting from communicative rationality,he developed Husserl’s understanding of the life world and proposed that the modern world is composed of the objective world,the social world and the subjective world,so the understanding and application of moral norms need to return to the communication activities between subjects in the real life world,based on which consensus moral norms can be truly established.Communicative aptitude(as the moral consciousness of the subject’s internal stipulation)provides the internal conditions for the consensus.In Habermas’ s view,only when there are interactive activities with interactive influence,can there be a communication relationship with consensus significance.The question of how consensus comes depends on the following conditions: first,consensus arises from the mutual understanding based on communication behavior;second,the achievement of consensus depends on the use of language.If people want to communicate through discourse,they must recognize the subjective status of each other.Only by reaching the consensus between subjects,the use of language is particularly important.Third,the formulation of discourse principles,including the principle of discourse practice and the principle of generalization.The principle of discourse practice(D principle)indicates that norms can be equally recognized and respected in the formation process,and at the same time,they can be sincere communication in a "decentered" way.The universality of the generalization principle(U principle)is not the universality of "monologue",but the universality of mutual identity between subjects.The concrete application of the two principles in the real society deepens the theoretical conception of the consensus view and its expansion and application in the legal and political fields.Habermas discusses the importance and possibility of consensus,aiming to solve various conflicts in diverse societies.His consensus view has attracted the attention of many scholars in the academic circle,but also suffered some criticism or doubt.For example,scholars represented by Wilmer criticized its principle of generalization,and scholars represented by Leota questioned the possibility of its reasonable consensus,while some scholars believe that Habermas’ consensus view has strong idealism.However,based on the habermas related works on consensus of literature,can be found that some of the criticism and question did not fully noticed the important value of habermas consensus,such as its consensus conforms to the human rational expectations of freedom and equality,help to promote in-depth dialogue between Chinese and western culture,help to reconstruct modern social ethics.