Jurgen Habermas (June 18, 1929 – March 14, 2026) was a German philosopher the most recent in the long line of continental rationalism emphasizing that reason, rather than sensory experience, is the primary source of knowledge. Emanuel Kant’s famous phrase, “Have courage to use your own understanding”, is a straightforward, simple explanation of rationalism. The profound contribution and continuation of this line of thinking is what Habermas called, “Communicative rationality”, the human capacity to achieve mutual understanding and consensus through open, honest, and uncoerced argumentation. It focuses on cooperative action to find shared, valid solutions to problems. The key concepts are that every speech act should be based on truth, rightness, and sincerity. The goal is to reach consensus where the only force is that of the best argument, free from deception and coercion. Habermas argues that the inherent goal of human language is understanding. As actor Sidney Greenstreet said in The Maltese Falcon, “Here’s to plain speaking and clear understanding.” Unfortunately, in today’s political climate, the Native Americans’ complaint of the dishonesty of the European settlers speaking with forked tongue, saying one thing while meaning another, is more prevalent now than we could ever imagine!