Habermas: A Guide for the Perplexed

Description

Jurgen Habermas' work ranges across critical theory, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, the philosophy of science, citizenship and democracy, religion and psychoanalysis, forging new paradigms and engaging with other key thinkers. Habermas: A Guide for the Perplexed is the ideal starting point for anyone studying Habermas. It follows Habermas's critical and philosophical project through all the stages of its development - the early critical theory, the linguistic turn, communicative action and discourse ethics, the theory of deliberative democracy -building up a complete overview of his work, and offering close and incisive analysis throughout.

Lasse Thomassen is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, and Garcia-Pelayo Fellow at the Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales, Madrid, Spain. He is the author of Deconstructing Habermas (Routledge, 2007) and editor of The Derrida-Habermas Reader (Edinburgh UP, 2006) and Radical Democracy (Manchester UP, 2005).

"In this introduction to Jurgen Habermas, Thomassen attempts to make the work of this German political philosopher more accessible to readers encountering it for the first time. The book covers all of Habermas' major topics, including his writings on the public sphere, his theories of communicative action, validity, and deliberative democracy, and his most recent work on supra-national democratic institutions and the role of religion in contemporary societies. Thomassen places Habermas' writings into their political and philosophical contexts, and contrasts his work with that of other thinkers, especially the members of the Frankfurt School." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc. 'Lasse Thomassen's book may not be for absolute beginners or seasoned specialists, but it certainly provides an excellent and reliable bridge between the two.' -- Studies in Social and Political Thought