Sensus communis, Publizität, Révolution: An Examination of Kant’s Political Antinomy through Kant’s Third Critique

From a historical perspective, the public sphere can be seen as an emblematic phenomenon of modernity, a paradigm of modern bourgeois society.1 The public sphere, as a discursive space in which individual subjects discuss topics of common interest, occupies an intermediary position between public and state institutions of power and the sphere of private lifes. It appears therefore alongside the distinction between the public and private. As a historical product of the modern European bourgeoisie the public sphere is conceived as a space of open discussion and exchange of ideas on the issues of public concern; the sphere where the modern citizen’s rational and communicative discourse is staged and, to a certain degree, where public authories gain their democratic legitimacy