Books

The Lure of Technocracy

The Lure of Technocracy. Translated by Ciaran Cronin. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2015; German: Im Sog der Technokratie: Kleine politische Schriften XII. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013.
From the publisher: Over the past 25 years, Jürgen Habermas has presented what is arguably the most coherent and wide-ranging defence of the project of European unification and of parallel developments towards a politically integrated world society. In… More

The Crisis of the European Union: A Response

The Crisis of the European Union: A Response. Translated by Ciaran Cronin. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2012; German: Zur Verfassung Europas: Ein Essay. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2011.
From the publisher: In the midst of the current crisis that is threatening to derail the historical project of European unification, Jürgen Habermas has been one of the most perceptive critics of the ineffectual and evasive responses to the global financial… More

Europe: The Faltering Project

Europe: The Faltering Project. Translated by Ciaran Cronin. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009; German: Ach Europa: Kleine politische Schriften XI. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2008.
From the publisher: The future of Europe and the role it will play in the 21st century are among the most important political questions of our time. The optimism of a decade ago has now faded but the stakes are higher than ever. The way these questions are… More

Between Naturalism and Religion

Between Naturalism and Religion. Translated by Ciaran Cronin. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2008; German: Zwischen Naturalismus und Religion. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2005.
From the publisher: Two countervailing trends mark the intellectual tenor of our age the spread of naturalistic worldviews and religious orthodoxies. Advances in biogenetics, brain research, and robotics are clearing the way for the penetration of an… More

The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion

– Habermas, Jurgen and Joseph Ratzinger. The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion. Translated by Brian McNeil. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007; German: Dialektik der Säkularisierung: Über Vernunft und Religion. Verlag Herder, 2005.
From the publisher: Two of the worlds great contemporary thinkers–theologian and churchman Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, and Jurgen Habermas, philosopher and Neo-Marxist social critic–discuss and debate aspects of secularization, and… More

The Divided West

The Divided West. Edited and translated by Ciaran Cronin. London: Polity Press, 2006; German: Der gespaltene Westen: Kleine politische Schriften X. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2004.
From the publisher: Make no mistake, the normative authority of the United States of America lies in ruins. Such is the judgment of the most influential thinker in Europe today reflecting on the political repercussions of the war in Iraq. The decision to go… More

The Future of the Human Nature

The Future of the Human Nature. Translated by Hella Beister and William Rehg. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2002; German: Die Zukunft der menschlichen Natur: Auf dem Weg zu einer liberalen Eugenik? Suhrkamp Verlag, 2001.
From the publisher: Recent developments in biotechnology and genetic research are raising complex ethical questions concerning the legitimate scope and limits of genetic intervention. As we begin to contemplate the possibility of intervening in the human… More

Commentary

[in chronological order]

Rebooting Discourse Ethics

– Heath, Joseph. "Rebooting Discourse Ethics." Philosophy & Social Criticism 40.9 (2014): 819-866.
In this article I argue that the conception of discourse ethics that Jürgen Habermas advances in his seminar paper, ‘Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification’, is subject to significant revision in later work. The central… More

Reconciling Positivism and Realism: Kelsen and Habermas on Democracy and Human Rights

– Ingram, David. "Reconciling Positivism and Realism: Kelsen and Habermas on Democracy and Human Rights." Philosophy & Social Criticism 40.3 (2014): 237-267.
It is well known that Hans Kelsen and Jürgen Habermas invoke realist arguments drawn from social science in defending an international, democratic human rights regime against Carl Schmitt’s attack on the rule of law. However, despite embracing the realist… More

The Good European: On Jurgen Habermas

– Babinbach, Anson. "The Good European: On Jurgen Habermas." The Nation. July 10, 2012.
Excerpt: Jürgen Habermas, Germany’s most famous contemporary philosopher, first contemplated the possibility of the European Union’s collapse in May 2010, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel dithered for weeks over the EU’s bailout of Greece as she… More

‘No-Saying’ in Habermas

– White, Stephen K. and Evan Robert Farr. "'No-Saying' in Habermas." Political Theory 40.1 (2012): 32-57.
Habermas’s paradigm of communicative action is usually taken to be pretty much dominated by consensus, “Yes-saying.” What if this were a radically one-sided perception? We take up this unorthodox position by arguing that “no-saying” in this paradigm… More

Up From Zero Hour

– Gordon, Peter E. "Up From Zero Hour." The New Republic. January 11, 2011.
Excerpt: Jürgen Habermas ranks today as the single most important public intellectual in all of Continental Europe. But he is also a formidable philosopher whose major contributions to social and political theory, constitutional law, historical sociology,… More

What Happens When a Leftist Philosopher Discovers God?

– Berger, Peter. "What Happens When a Leftist Philosopher Discovers God?" The American Interest. Septermber 21, 2011.
Excerpt: Habermas is exactly my age. Our paths crossed briefly in the 1960s, when he was a visiting professor in the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, where I was then teaching. We did not particularly take to each other. I was put off… More

Habermas: The Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

– Baxter, Hugh. Habermas: The Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011.
From the publisher: Though many legal theorists are familiar with Jürgen Habermas’s work addressing core legal concerns, they are not necessarily familiar with his earlier writings in philosophy and social theory. Because Habermas’s later work on… More

Essays

Reply to My Critics

– "Reply to My Critics." In Habermas and Religion, edited by Craig Calhoun, Eduardo Mendieta, and Jonathan Van Antwerpen. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013.

Reply to My Critics

– "Reply to My Critics." In Habermas and Rawls: Disputing the Political, edited by James Gordon Finlayson & Fabian Freyenhagen, 283-304. New York: Routledge, 2011.

Europe’s Post-Democratic Era

– "Europe's Post-Democratic Era." Guardian, November 11, 2011.
“At European level, democratic institutions enter into a new constellation. One element involved in this is solidarity: once a constitutional community extends beyond the boundaries of a single state, solidarity among citizens who are willing to support… More

On the Concept of Human Dignity and the Realist Utopia of Human Rights

– "On the Concept of Human Dignity and the Realist Utopia of Human Rights." Metaphilosophy 41 (2010): 464-480.
Human rights developed in response to specific violations of human dignity, and can therefore be conceived as specifications of human dignity, their moral source. This internal relationship explains the moral content and moreover the distinguishing feature of… More

Notes on a Post-Secular Society

– "Notes on a Post-Secular Society." New Perspectives Quarterly 25.4 (2008): 17-29.
“A ‘post-secular’ society must at some point have been in a ‘secular’ state. The controversial term can therefore only be applied to the affluent societies of Europe or countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where… More

Multimedia

Lecture: “Transnationalization of Democracy: A European Experiment”

– Princeton University, Uploaded on May 1, 2014.
Jürgen Habermas, a world-renowned public intellectual, sociologist, and philosopher, will speak on “Transnationalization of Democracy: A European Experiment,” on Thursday, May 1, 2014, at 4:30 p.m., in McCosh 50 at Princeton University. The event, which… More

Lecture: “Democracy in Europe”

– Holberg Prize, YouTube, Uploaded on Oct 30, 2014.
Holberg Lecture by Jürgen Habermas at the University of Bergen, September 11th 2014. The Holberg Lectures was a series of lectures with previous Holberg Prize laureates held as part of the ten-year anniversary of the Holberg Prize. Jürgen Habermas was the… More

Lecture: “Democracy, Solidarity and the European Crisis”

– KU Leuven, Youtube, Uploaded on Apr 27, 2013
The renowned German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas came to Leuven and shared his perspective on the future of a democratic Europe on April 26 2013 in the Pieter De Somer Auditorium. The lecture was introduced by the President of the European… More

Lecture: “Myth and Ritual”

– Georgetown University, YouTube, Uploaded on Aug 14, 2012.
In this Berkley Center lecture, the philosopher Jürgen Habermas explored the evolution of myth and ritual, and their enduring significance for human societies, from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

Jürgen Habermas Interview

– YouTube, Uploaded on Feb 1, 2007.
Video footage of Jurgen Habermas discussing some of his theories

Teaching