English summary: Jurgen Habermas developed his philosophical ideas as a critical response to the unreasonableness of the Nazi regime, elaborating his critical theories on society and rationality. Habermas sought to comprehend social alienation, leading him to the communicational character of human reason and eventually his critical theory of morality, law, democracy, and culture. Ridha Chennoufi works to trace the evolution of Habermass philosophy, reveal its complexity and coherence, and demonstrate contributions from this close circle of collaborators. French description: Le present (...) ouvrage poursuit un triple objectif: exposer l'evolution de la philosophie habermassienne, relever sa complexite et prouver sa coherence, et surtout montrer qu'elle a pu prendre forme grace a l'apport critique d'un cercle restreint de proches collaborateurs (A. Wellmer, T. Mcarthy, A. Honneth, R. Alexy et K. Gunther). Marque par la deraison du regime nazi, le jeune Habermas se lance dans l'elaboration d'une theorie critique de la societe, theorie qui le mene a decouvrir que la lutte contre l'alienation sociale se fonde necessairement sur des presupposes normatifs, lesquels revelent le caractere communicationnel de la raison humaine. Fort de ce constat, Habermas procede alors a la longue et passionnante construction d'un concept postmetaphysique de la rationalite : un concept prenant pour axe l'obligation de justifier publiquement toute pretention a etablir la validite attachee aux enonces theoriques et pratiques; un concept qui est aussi appele a servir de fondement a une theorie critique et faillibiliste de la morale, du droit, de la democratie et de la culture. (shrink)

Peoples, like individuals, can go through periods of deep change that may cause them to have doubts about themselves, their basic values, their past, and in particular their future choices. It is this experience that the countries of the Middle East and North Africa have lived through in the last decade. As the reader may be aware, the Tunisian Revolution of 2011 that started the recent momentous changes was first met with enthusiasm by the free world. Then euphoria gave way (...) to disappointment and even abhorrence of the violence of the so-called Islamist factions. To my mind, the point here is not so much to try and understand the causes of this unfortunate turnaround. Rather, it raises the question of why people so... (shrink)