Commentary

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

Habermas: Introduction and Analysis

– Ingram, David. Habermas: Introduction and Analysis. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010.
From the publisher: The work of Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929) has been highly influential both in philosophy and across many disciplines in the social sciences. David Ingram here provides an introduction to Habermas’s complex thought as it has evolved from… More

Reading Weber in Tehran

– Kurzman, Charles. "Reading Weber in Tehran." The Chronicle Review. November 1, 2009.
Excerpt: Max Weber is not alone in being blamed for the unrest in Iran. Other social theorists, like Jürgen Habermas, John Keane, Talcott Parsons, Richard Rorty, and unspecified feminists and poststructuralists have also been accused of “threatening… More

From Havel to Habermas

– "From Havel to Habermas." The Economist. November 27, 2008.
Excerpt: They gripped the world, but left political philosophers yawning. According to Jürgen Habermas, a German philosopher, the revolutions that overturned decades of totalitarian rule in central and eastern Europe in 1989 were marked by a “total lack… More

Between Decision and Deliberation: Political Paradox in Democratic Theory

– Honig, Bonnie. "Between Decision and Deliberation: Political Paradox in Democratic Theory." American Political Science Review, 101.1 (2007), 1-17.
Deliberative democratic theorists (in this essay, Seyla Benhabib and Jurgen Habermas) seek to resolve, manage, or transcend paradoxes of democratic legitimation or constitutional democracy. Other democratic theorists, such as Chantal Mouffe, embrace such… More

The Inclusion of the Other? Habermas and the Paradox of Tolerance

– Thomassen, Lasse. "The Inclusion of the Other? Habermas and the Paradox of Tolerance." Political Theory 34.4 (2006): 439-462.
In his most recent work, Jürgen Habermas has proposed a deliberative account of tolerance where the norms of tolerance—including the threshold of tolerance and the norms regulating the relationship between the tolerating and the tolerated parties—are the… More

Habermas: A Very Short Introduction

– Finlayson, Gordon. Habermas: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
From the publisher: Jürgen Habermas is the most renowned living German philosopher. This book aims to give a clear and readable overview of his philosophical work. It analyzes both the theoretical underpinnings of Habermas’s social theory, and its more… More

The Dilemmas of German Bioethics

– Brown, Eric B. "The Dilemmas of German Bioethics." The New Atlantis. Spring 2004.
Excerpt: Habermas’s project is a complicated one: As a “post-metaphysical” liberal in the Kantian tradition, he doesn’t believe philosophy can ask questions about the ultimate purpose of man or “the good life.” He doesn’t agree with recent… More

Communicative Action and Rational Choice

– Heath, Joseph. Communicative Action and Rational Choice. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001.
In this book Joseph Heath brings Jürgen Habermas’s theory of communicative action into dialogue with the most sophisticated articulation of the instrumental conception of practical rationality-modern rational choice theory. Heath begins with an… More

Feminism and Habermas’s Discourse Ethics

– Meehan, Johanna. "Feminism and Habermas's Discourse Ethics." Philosophy and Social Criticism 26.3 (2000): 39-52.
Habermas’ account of the radically intersubjective constitution of subjectivity is of great use to feminist theorists, as is his defense of the rational character of normative claims. Feminists must however, reject his reductive identification of… More

Social Labor and Communicative Action

– Fleming, Marie. "Social Labor and Communicative Action.” In Perspectives on Habermas, edited by Lewis E. Hahn, 445-461. Chicago: Open Court, 2000.

Gadamer: Between Heidegger and Habermas

– Scheibler, Ingrid. Gadamer: Between Heidegger and Habermas. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000.
Table of Contents: Part 1 Preface Part 2 Note on Translation Part 3 Abbreviations Part 4 Introduction Part 5 The Modernist Left: Habermas’s Critique of Gadamer I Chapter 6 Background to the Debate Chapter 7 Points of Agreement Chapter 8 Points of… More

Legitimate Differences: Interpretation in the Abortion Controversy and Other Public Debates

– Warnke, Georgia. Legitimate Differences: Interpretation in the Abortion Controversy and Other Public Debates. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1999.
From the publisher: Legitimate Differences challenges the usual portrayal of current debates over thorny social issues including abortion, pornography, affirmative action, and surrogate mothering as moral debates. How can it be said that our debates oppose… More

Habermas: A Critical Reader

– Dews, Peter, ed. Habermas: A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
From the publisher: Comprised of classic and newly-commissioned papers from leading theorists, this volume provides a wide-ranging critical introduction to the thought of Jurgen Habermas. Some contributions explore the relation between Habermas’s… More

Theories, Practices, and Pluralism: A Pragmatic Interpretation of Critical Social Science

– Bohman, James. “Theories, Practices, and Pluralism: A Pragmatic Interpretation of Critical Social Science.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 28 (1999): 459–480.
A hallmark of recent critical social science has been the commitment to methodological and theoretical pluralism. Habermas and others have argued that diverse theoretical and empirical approaches are needed to support informed social criticism. However, an… More

The Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy

– Lafont, Cristina. The Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999.
From the publisher: The linguistic turn in German philosophy was initiated in the eighteenth century in the work of Johann Georg Hamann, Johann Gottfried von Herder, and Wilhelm von Humboldt. It was further developed in this century by Martin Heidegger, and… More

What is a Validity Claim?

– Heath, Joseph. “What is a Validity Claim?” Philosophy and Social Criticism 24.4 (1998): 23-41.
Even though the concept of a ‘validity claim’ is central to Habermas’s theory of communicative action, he has never given a precise definition of the term. He has stated only that truth is a type of validity claim, and that rightness and… More

The Politics of Vulnerability: On the Role of Idealization in Butler and Habermas

– Fultner, Barbara. "The Politics of Vulnerability: On the Role of Idealization in Butler and Habermas." Philosophy Today 42 (1998).
“The particular theory of meaning that Judith Butler espouses has a certain political cash value.’ This presents an interesting parallel with Jurgen Habermas, who developed a universal pragmatic account of language in order to ground rational… More

Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy

– Bohman, James. Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.
From the publisher: How can we create a vital and inclusive pluralistic democracy? Public Deliberation offers answers to this question by showing how democratic theory and democratic practice can be remade to face new challenges. Arguing against the… More

The Cambridge Companion to Habermas

– White, Stephen K., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Habermas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
From the publisher: This volume examines the historical and intellectual contexts out of which Habermas’ work emerged, and offers an overview of his main ideas, including those in his most recent publication. Among the topics discussed are: his… More

Feminists Read Habermas

– Meehan, Johanna, ed. Feminists Read Habermas. London: Routledge, 1995.
From the publisher: This important new collection considers Jurgen Habermas’s discourse theory from a variety of feminist vantage points. Feminist scholars have been drawn to Habermas’s work because it reflects a tradition of emancipatory… More

The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories, and Political Significance

– Wiggershaus, Rolf. The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories, and Political Significance. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995.
From the publisher: This is the definitive study of the history and accomplishments of the Frankfurt School. It offers elegantly written portraits of the major figures in the school’s history as well as overviews of the various positions and directions… More

Law in Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action

– Deflem, Mathieu. "Law in Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action." Philosophy and Social Criticism 20.4 (1994): 1-20.
This paper outlines and reviews the legal theory of Jurgen Habermas in the context of Habermas’s general social theory, known as the theory of communicative action. First explained are the central concepts of system in lifeworld around which… More

Postmodernism and the Public Sphere

– Villa, Dana R. "Postmodernism and the Public Sphere." The American Political Science Review 86.3 (1992): 712-721.
The idea of the public sphere, of an institutionalized arena of discursive interaction, is central to democratic theory and practice. The modern age has, however, witnessed the erosion of a public realm distinct from the state and the market. In response to… More

On the Relation of Morality to Politics

– McCarthy, Thomas. "On the Relation of Morality to Politics." In Habermas and the Public Sphere, edited by Craig J. Calhoun, 51-72. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992.

Ideals and Illusions: On Reconstruction and Deconstruction in Contemporary Critical Theory

– McCarthy, Thomas. Ideals and Illusions: On Reconstruction and Deconstruction in Contemporary Critical Theory. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.
From the publisher: These lucid and closely reasoned studies of the thought of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, and Richard Rorty provide a coherent analysis of major pathways in recent critical theory. They defend a position analogous to… More

Communicative Action: Essays on Jürgen Habermas’s The Theory of Communicative Action

– Honneth, Axel and Hans Joas, eds. Communicative Action: Essays on Jürgen Habermas's The Theory of Communicative Action. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991.
From the publisher: These critical essays on Jürgen Habermas’s major contribution to sociological theory, The Theory of Communicative Action, provide an indispensable guide for anyone trying to grasp that large, difficult, and important work. The… More

Dworkin, Habermas, and the CLS Movement on Moral Criticism in Law

– Ingram, David. "Dworkin, Habermas, and the CLS Movement on Moral Criticism in Law." Philosophy and Social Criticism 16 (1990): 237-268.
CLS advocates renew Marx’s critique of liberalism by impugning the rationality of formal rights. Habermas and Dworkin argue against this view, while showing how liberal polity might permit reasonable conflicts between competing principles of right.… More

The Recent Work of Jürgen Habermas: Reason, Justice and Modernity

– White, Stephen K. The Recent Work of Jürgen Habermas: Reason, Justice and Modernity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.
From the publisher: Jurgen Habermas is one of the foremost philosophers and social theorists in the world today, but the complexity and breadth of his thought make him often difficult to understand. This book offers a clear, accessible, and reliable… More

Hermeneutics and the Critique of Ideology

– Warnke, Georgia. "Hermeneutics and the Critique of Ideology." In Gadamer: Hermeneutics, Tradition and Reason. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987.
Outline of the Chapter: 1. Habermas’s Review of Truth and Method 2. Apel’s Critique of Hermeneutics 3. Habermas’s Second Response to Gadamer 4. Unconstrained Communication 5. Gadamer’s Conservatism

Formal Pragmatics and Social Criticism

– Bohman, James. "Formal Pragmatics and Social Criticism: The Philosophy of Language and the Critique of Ideology in Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action." Philosophy and Social Criticism 11.4 (1986): 331-353.

The Critique of Functionalist Reason

– Benhabib, Seyla. "The Critique of Functionalist Reason." In Critique, Norm, and Utopia, 224-278. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.
From the American Political Science Review (about Critique, Norm, and Utopia): Displaying an impressive command of complex materials, Seyla Benhabib reconstructs the history of theories from a systematic point of view and examines the origins and… More

Habermas and Modernity

– Bernstein, Richard, ed. Habermas and Modernity. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985.
From the publisher: All of these essays focus on the concept of modernity in the philosophical work of Jurgen Habermas – an ambitious and carefully argued intellectual project that invites, indeed demands, rigorous scrutiny. Following an introductory… More

Habermas on Communicative Action

– Tugendhat, Ernst. "Habermas on Communicative Action." In Social Action, edited by Gottfried Seebaß and R. Tuomela, 179-86. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1985.
“Vis-à-vis the conception of communicative action as presented by Jürgen Habermas in the paper for this symposium and at greater length in his recent book Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns I am troubled more than by anything else by two… More

The Habermas Phenomenon

– Blitz, Mark. "The Habermas Phenomenon." National Affairs. Spring, 1983.
Excerpt: Jurgen Habermas is the “dominant figure on the intellectual scene in Germany today,” Thomas McCarthy tells us, and this is arguably so. His American and British influence is now limited to a small constituency of sociologists and philosophers… More

Reason and Authority in Habermas: A Critique of the Critics

– White, Stephen K. "Reason and Authority in Habermas: A Critique of the Critics." The American Political Science Review 74.4 (1980): 1007-1017.
Some critics of Jürgen Habermas have charged that his ideas have an affinity with authoritarianism. This criticism rests on a fundamental misinterpretation of Habermas’ project for a communicative ethics. Political authoritarianism is deeply… More

Communication and Reconciliation: Habermas’ Critique of Adorno

– Honneth, Axel. "Communication and Reconciliation: Habermas' Critique of Adorno." Telos 39 (1979): 45-61.
At the time of Adorno’s death, Habermas pointed out a methodological bareness in Adorno’s work. According to him, Adorno’s theoretical veil no longer clothed the methodological skeleton. If one separates content from imagery, Habermas’… More