"Habermas: A Guide for the Perplexed"

New book:

Habermas: A Guide for the Perplexed

by Lasse Thomassen

(Continuum, 2010)

182 pp.

Description

"This book will try to make sense of Habermas. I will try to make up for the difficulties in reading and understanding Habermas by translating Habermas into a more accessible language and give a systematic account of the main tenets of his work. Although I shall mention some of the criticisms that have been raised against Habermas, the aim of the book is not to find contradictions or oversights in Habermas's work; rather, this introduction is meant as a friendly reconstruction of Habermas's work." (From the introduction).

"Habermas: A Guide for the Perplexed" 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.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Towards a Critical Theory of Society
3. The Public Sphere
4. Communicative Action and Reason
5. Discourse Ethics
6. Deliberative Democracy
7. The New Political Constellation
Bibliography

Lasse Thomassen is Senior Lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London.