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The Labyrinth of Modernity
This important new book by a major voice in the Social Imaginaries movement offers the most systematic attempt to establish conceptual and historical links between the idea of modernity as a new civilization and the notion of multiple modernities. Arnason demonstrates a theory of globalization that is still compatible with the emphasis on unity and diversity of modernity as a civilization.
Communicative Action
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 editors' introduction traces the history of the reception of the work and identifies the main themes on which discussion has focused: a concept of communicative rationality; a theory of action based on distinguishing communicative from instrumental reason; a two-level concept of society that integrates lifeworld and system paradigms; and a critical theory of modernity meant to diagnose the sociopathologies of contemporary society. ContributorsJeffrey Alexander, Johann P. Arnason, Johannes Berger, Günter Dux, Jürgen Habermas, Hans Joas, Hans-Peter Krüger, Thomas McCarthy, Herbert Schnädelbach, Martin Seel, Charles Taylor
Reading Adorno
This book draws on core concepts coined by Adorno, such as identity thinking, the culture industry, and his critique of the autonomous and rational subject, to address the ills that plague neoliberal capitalist societies today. These ills range from the risk of a return to totalitarian tendencies, to the global rise of the far-right, and anti-feminist conceptions of motherhood. Subsequent chapters outline the ways in which Adorno's thought can also be seen to redress the challenges of modern societies, such as the critical function of artworks, and the subversive potential of slow-food and popular music. The important underlying concern of the book is to highlight the continuing relevance of Adorno, both in dealing with the failures of neo-liberal capitalist societies, and in his applicability to a wide range of disciplines.
Also a History of Philosophy, Volume 2
In this second volume of his groundbreaking new work on the history of philosophy, Jürgen Habermas traces the development of Western thought from the reception of Platonism by early Christian thought, through the revolution in medieval philosophy and theology triggered by the rediscovery of Aristotle’s works, up to the decoupling of philosophical and theological thought in nominalism and the Reformation that ushered in the postmetaphysical thinking of the modern age. In contrast to conventional histories that focus on movements and schools, Habermas takes the dialectic of faith and knowledge as a guiding thread for analysing key developments in the thought of major figures such as Augusti...
Civilizations in Dispute
The growing interest in civilizations, both on the level of political controversy ("the clash of civilizations") and in the context of scholarly debates, calls for more theoretical reflection on the problems and perspectives central to this field of social inquiry. This book contains the first systematical and critical survey of classical and contemporary approaches to comparative civilizational analysis; it goes on to outline a theoretical model that draws on the work of historical sociologists as well as on comparative cultural and intellectual history. Civilizations are analyzed as multi-dimensional formations, with particular emphasis on cultural orientations, but also on the autonomous dynamics of political and economic institutions. The last chapter applies this line of argument to questions raised by critics of Eurocentrism and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of postcolonial theory.
Also a History of Philosophy, Volume 1
This is the first volume of a ground-breaking new work by Jürgen Habermas on the history of philosophy. In this major new work, Habermas sets out the ideas that inform his systematic account of the history of Western philosophy as a genealogy of postmetaphysical thinking. His account goes far beyond a vindication of the enduring relevance of philosophical reflection founded on communicative reason as a source of orientation in the modern world. He contrasts this conception with prominent diagnoses of the supposed crisis of Enlightenment reason and culture that seeks redemption in the affirmation of traditional religious authority (Schmitt), the timeless validity of Greek metaphysics (Straus...
The Perspective of Historical Sociology
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the themes that make up the field of Historical Sociology. At its centre is the human individual as related to social and historical development. The key question it raises is who or what is responsible for the process of human history: society or the individual?
The Totalitarian Paradigm after the End of Communism
Concepts of totalitarianism have undergone an academic revival in recent years, particularly since the breakdown of communist systems in Europe in 1989-91: the totalitarian paradigm, so it seems to many scholars today, had been discarded prematurely in the heat of the Cold War. The demise of communism as a social system is, however, not only an important cause of the recurring attractiveness of the totalitarian paradigm, but provides at the same time new evidence and, correspondingly, new problems of explanation for all approaches in communist studies and totalitarianism theory in particular. This book contains articles by philosophers, social scientists and historians who reassess the valid...
The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy
The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy presents a series of essays that trace the Greeks’ path to democracy and examine the connection between the Greek polis as a citizen state and democracy as well as the interaction between democracy and various forms of cultural expression from a comparative historical perspective and with special attention to the place of Greek democracy in political thought and debates about democracy throughout the centuries. Presents an original combination of a close synchronic and long diachronic examination of the Greek polis - city-states that gave rise to the first democratic system of government Offers a detailed study of the close interactionbetween ...
Lutheranism and the Nordic Spirit of Social Democracy
One man's way of thinking about God has decisively shaped the political and economic rise of Nordic social democracy. 500 years ago, Martin Luther's writings led to the Reformation in the Nordic countries, and his values and beliefs shaped more than just the church. Lutheranism is one of the most important influences on the Nordic welfare system and a general belief in social democracy. Indeed, Nordic social democracy itself can be seen as a modern form of religion, or "secular Lutheranism". In Lutheranism and the Nordic Spirit of Social Democracy, Robert Nelson, an American observer and professor of political economy at the University of Maryland, brings a fresh perspective to the interrelated questions of religion, national identity, and governance in the Nordic world. Exploring how Lutheranism never went away as the true path to a new heaven on earth, Nelson shows how the form of Lutheran Nordic religion and culture changed radically, while its substance remained surprisingly unaltered.
