In this important volume Habermas outlines the views which form the basis of his critical theory of modern societies. The volume comprises five interlocking essays, which together define the contours of his theory of communication and of his substantive account of social change. ′What is Universal Pragmatics?′ is the best available statement of Habermas′s programme for a theoryof communication based on the analysis of speech acts. In the following two essays Habermas draws on the work of Kohlberg and others to (...) develop a distinctive account of moral consciousness and normative structures. ′Toward a Reconstruction of historical Materialsim′ takes these issues further, offering a wide–ranging reconstruction of Marx′s historical materialsim understood as a theory of social evolution. The final essay focuses on the question of legitimacy and on the legitimation problems faced by modern states. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the key questions of social and political theory today. (shrink)

James Bohman has succeeded in reinvigorating the old debate over explanation and understanding by situating it within contemporary discussions about sociological indeterminacy and complexity. I argue that Bohman's preference for a paradigm based on Habermas's theory of communicative action is justifiable given the explanatory deficiencies of ethnomethodological, rational choice, rule-based, and functionalist methodologies. Yet I do not share his belief that the paradigm is preferable to less formalized models of interpretation.

In this wide-ranging work, now available in paperback, Habermas presents his views on the nature of the social sciences and their distinctive methodology and concerns. He examines, among other things, the traditional division between the natural sciences and the social sciences; the characteristics of social action and the implications of theories of language for social enquiry; and the nature, tasks and limitations of hermeneutics. Habermas' analysis of these and other themes is, as always, rigorous, perceptive and constructive. This brilliant study (...) succeeds in highlighting the distinctive characteristics of the social sciences and in outlining the nature of, and prospects for, critical theory today. (shrink)

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 answered will have enormous implications not only for all Europeans but also for the citizens of Europe's closest and oldest ally - the USA. In this new book, one of Europe's leading intellectuals examines the political (...) alternatives facing Europe today and outlines a course of action for the future. Habermas advocates a policy of gradual integration of Europe in which key decisions about Europe's future are put in the hands of its peoples, and a “bipolar commonality” of the West in which a more unified Europe is able to work closely with the United States to build a more stable and equitable international order. This book includes Habermas's portraits of three long-time philosophical companions, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida and Ronald Dworkin. It also includes several important new texts by Habermas on the impact of the media on the public sphere, on the enduring importance religion in "post-secular" societies, and on the design of a democratic constitutional order for the emergent world society. (shrink)

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 answered will have enormous implications not only for all Europeans but also for the citizens of Europe's closest and oldest ally - the USA. In this new book, one of Europe's leading intellectuals examines the political (...) alternatives facing Europe today and outlines a course of action for the future. Habermas advocates a policy of gradual integration of Europe in which key decisions about Europe's future are put in the hands of its peoples, and a “bipolar commonality” of the West in which a more unified Europe is able to work closely with the United States to build a more stable and equitable international order. This book includes Habermas's portraits of three long-time philosophical companions, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida and Ronald Dworkin. It also includes several important new texts by Habermas on the impact of the media on the public sphere, on the enduring importance religion in "post-secular" societies, and on the design of a democratic constitutional order for the emergent world society. (shrink)

Habermas's 1971 Gauss Lectures, plus two additional essays, outlining an intersubjective approach to social theory.

The core of this book is a set of five lectures delivered by Habermas at Princeton in 1971 under the title 'Reflections on the Linguistic Foundation of Sociology'. These lectures offer a preliminary view of what would become The Theory of Communicative Action, and they form an excellent introduction to Habermas's ideas about communication and society. They lay out the general parameters of Habermas's project in an accessible way, and situate his work in relation to other theories of society, particularly (...) those of Edmund Husserl, Wilfrid Sellars, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Two additional essays elaborating the themes of the lectures are also included in this volume. 'Intentions, Conventions, and Linguistic Interactions' is an essay in the philosophy of action that focuses on the validity of social norms and examines the conceptual connections between rules, conventions, norm-governed action, and intentionality. 'Reflections on Communicative Pathology' addresses the question of deviant processes of socialization and contains an analysis of the formal conditions of systematically distorted communication. This book was designed as a companion to On the Pragmatics of Communication (1998), which took pieces from Habermas's later work to create a systematic introduction to his theory of formal pragmatics. (shrink)

This paper argues that the normative source of modern basic rights consists in the idea of human dignity. It is this idea through which rights derive a universalistic content of morality. Due to their being rights, human rights can serve to protect human dignity, which in turn owes its connotations of self-respect and social recognition to the intramundane status of democratic citizenship. This is associated with a realistic utopia whose aim at realizing social justice is intrinsic to the very institutions (...) of democratic constitutional states. (shrink)

Historically, the idea of human dignity as a legal concept appears later than that of human rights, and that is something that can be seen both in normative texts and legal decisions and doctrine. Nevertheless, the author maintains the theory that a close conceptual relationship has existed between both notions from the beginning, although then only implicitly. He argues, firstly, that human dignity is not a classifying term adopted subsequently to join symbolically a multitude of different rights, that it is (...) not merely the empty expression of a catalogue of isolated and unconnected human rights, but rather the moral source which nourishes the contents of all fundamental rights. The author then examines the catalyst role played by the concept of dignity in the composition of human rights, from rational morality on one hand, and in the form of subjective rights, on the other. Finally, he maintains that the extraction of human rights from the moral source of human dignity explains the expanding political force of a specific utopia, which the author defends, both against the global rejection that human rights sometimes suffered, as against the recent attempts directed at the deactivation of their radical content. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se analiza la actualidad de La propuesta de construir un orden mundial pacífico perfilada por Kant en su 'opúsculo La paz perpetua , publicado en 1795. Aunque los fundamentos filosóficos que subyacen en este emblemático e influyente ensayo han sido problematizados y el marco histórico se ha transformado profudamente, obligando a una radical reformulación, siguen en gran medida vigentes los principales objetivos propuestos. A la luz de Las ideas básicas del texto kantiano el autor examina algunas (...) observaciones formuladas contra la política de derechos humanos, mostrándose especialmente crítico con las objeciones vertidas por Carl Schmítt contra el pacifismo jurídico. (shrink)

In this introduction the author outlines his approach to philosophy of law taken in Between Facts and Norms. In particular, he briefly discusses topics such as the form and function of law, the relation between law and morality, the relation between human rights and sovereignty, and the notion of democracy.

In _The New Order and Last Orientation,_ Eric Voegelin explores two distinctly different yet equally important aspects of modernity. He begins by offering a vivid account of the political situation in seventeenth-century Europe after the decline of the church and the passing of the empire. Voegelin shows how the intellectual and political disorder of the period was met by such seemingly disparate responses as Grotius's theory of natural right, Hobbes's _Leviathan,_ the role of the Fronde in the formation of the (...) French national state, Spinoza's _Tractatus Theologico-Politicus,_ and Locke's _Second Treatise,_ the blueprint of a modern middle-class society. By putting these responses and the thought of Montesquieu, Hume, and others in the context of the birth pains of the national state and the emergence of a new self-understanding of man, Voegelin achieves a brilliant mixture of political history and profound philosophical analysis. Voegelin's verdict of modernity is pronounced most powerfully in the opening part of "Last Orientation," in the chapter entitled "Phenomenalism." His discussion of the intellectual confusion underlying the modern project of scientistic phenomenalism is the most original criticism leveled against modernity to date. It is at the same time the first step toward a recovery of reality through philosophy conceived as a science of substance in the spirit of Giordano Bruno. Voegelin's first example of such an effort at recovering reality is the chapter on Schelling, one of the spiritual realists who has not been affected by the prevailing rationalist or reductionist creeds that are part of the modern disorder. Schelling's indirect yet powerful influence on Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Freud more than justifies Voegelin's interest in his philosophy and character, even though Voegelin would later distance himself from some of Schelling's positions. The volume's concluding chapter, "Nietzsche and Pascal," applies the understanding gained from the study of Schelling to the thought of the most powerful critic of the age, Nietzsche. Nietzsche's self-avowed affinity with Pascal provides the key to an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of his thought and reaffirms the connection that links the beginning of modernity with its most recent crises and the efforts to overcome them. (shrink)

L’examen de la philosophie kantienne de la religion sur ses deux fronts (le dogmatisme théologique et le scepticisme des Lumières) et celui de sa postérité contrastée (pour l’essentiel, Hegel et l’hégélo-marxisme, Schleiermacher et la culture du protestantisme, Kierkegaard et la dialectique existentielle) permettent de poser cette question : comment s’approprier l’héritage sémantique des traditions religieuses (et spécialement l’idée d’un « règne de Dieu sur terre » et celle d’une « république éthique ») sans estomper la frontière entre foi et savoir, (...) donc : comment aujourd’hui s’approprier rationnellement les contenus religieux face à ce qui menace la raison de l’extérieur (les réactions fondamentalistes) comme de l’intérieur (la normativité en crise) de la modernité? (shrink)

El artículo examina la concepción neopragmatista desde la cual Rorty defiende una concepción antirrcalista del conocimiento. A fin de evaluar si es correcta la radicalización del «signo lingüístico) emprendida por el autor estadounidense, se compara la problemática contextualista con la duda epistemológica del escéptico moderno y se analiza el problema -tradicionalrnente ligado a las concepciones de la verdad como coherencia que subyacen a los planteamientos contextualistas-> de cómo distinguir la verdad de la aceptabilidad racional. Ante esta cuestión las opiniones se (...) dividen: mientras que Rorty asimila verdad y justificación al precio de sacrificar la intuición realista cotidiana, otros autores intentan dar cuenta de esta intuición desde dentro del paradigma lingüístico, ya sea mediante una deflación de la problemática de la verdad o mediante una idealización del proceso de justificación mismo. El autor reacciona frente a ambas posiciones: por un lado, contra un deflacionismo que se apoya en el concepto semántico de verdad, hace valer aquí una posición pragmática; por otro, desde esta misma óptica, crítica un tipo de epistemologizacíón del concepto de verdad que él mismo había defendido hasta el momento. Por esta vía se articula unaalternativa frente a la liquidación de las pretensiones de verdad incondicionales que ha llevado a Rorty a una naturalización de la razón lingüística muy problemática. (shrink)