UID:
almafu_9960119890002883
Format:
1 online resource (xi, 190 pages) :
,
digital, PDF file(s).
ISBN:
0-511-59826-2
Content:
Jürgen 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. In this book, Stephen White offers a clear, accessible, and reliable introduction to Habermas's work, particularly that which he has written since the publication of Knowledge and human interest (produced in English in 1971). During this period, new themes and directions have emerged in Habermas's thought, which culminated in The Theory of Communicative Action, a massive work that has not hitherto been the subject of extended commentary and analysis. This book is the first to provide a full-length study of Habermas's mature thought. Locating the latter in the context of contemporary debates, White explains Habermas's ideas about action, rationality, communicative ethics, contemporary capitalism, and new social movements, which characterize his later work. He also examines Habermas's interpretation of modernity, showing that although, like his forerunners in the Frankfurt School, Habermas maintains a critical stance towards modernity's instrumentalization of reason, he nonetheless offers a sophisticated defense of the universal significance of other aspects of modern consciousness that are too often forgotten by many recent radical critics of modernity. Throughout, White presents Habermas's work in such a way as to emphasize its coherence, and to demonstrate how it constitutes the beginnings of a distinctive new research program in the social sciences. As a well-researched and lucid account of Habermas's thought, this book will appeal to readers wanting an introduction to the complexity of his ideas, as well as to those already conversant with them. It will also interest social and political theorists concerned with the general theoretical issues that it covers.
Note:
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
,
Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations ; Introduction; 1 Rationality, social theory and political philosophy; I. Strategic rationality; II. Contextual rationality; III. Universalism, justice and rationality; 2 Communicative action and rationality; I. The critique of positivism and the linguistic turn; II Communicative competence and communicative rationality; III. Models of action and rationality; IV. Communicative action and strategic action; 3 Justice and the foundations of communicative ethics; I The principle of universalization. II. The ""speech-act-immanent obligation" "III. The presuppositions of argumentation; IV. Moral development and interactive competence; 4 Toward a minimal ethics and orientation for political theory; I The discursive interpretation of the demand for reciprocity; II. A minimal ethics; III. A different voice in the conversation; IV. The communicative model and political theory: an initial link; 5 Communicative reason, Modernity, rationalization and contemporary capitalism; I. Modern structures of consciousness and the achievement of a" "rationalized life world"" II Systems theory and rationalization; III The costs of modernization: ""colonization of the lifeworld""; IV. The costs of modernization: 'cultural impoverishment'; V. New social movements; 6 The two tasks of critical theory; I A non-foundationalist universalism; II Modernity and the domination of ""outer"" nature; III. Modernity and the domination of "" inner"" nature; IV. Concluding remarks; Notes; Bibliography; Index
,
English
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-521-38959-3
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-521-34360-7
Language:
English
URL:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511598265
