Habermas's acceptance speech in Vienna May 23

Excerpts from Jürgen Habermas's acceptance speech in Vienna on May 23, 2012, where he received both The Erwin Chargaff Prize and the 2011 Victor Frakl Honorary Award:

"Soll sich der Mensch verbessern dürfen?"
Wo sind die ethischen Grenzen, wenn es darum geht, das menschliche Wesen durch Biotechnologie zu verändern?
("Die Presse", May 27, 2012)

See also reports in
* "Wiener Zeitung" (May 24, 2012)
* "Der Standard" (May 24, 2012)
* "Die Presse" (May 24, 2012)
and two photos here and here!

My previous post on the event here.

Review of Rainer Forst's "The Right to Justification"

At "Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews", Eva Erman reviews "The Right to Justification: Elements of a Constructivist Theory of Justice" (Columbia University Press, 2011) by Rainer Forst:

Review of "The Right to Justification"

Excerpt
A strength of Forst's view vis-à-vis Habermas's discourse theory of democracy is that he can give us a justificatory story about the emergence of the legal form (which Habermas simply presumes as an historical fact and couples together with the discourse principle to get a criterion of democratic legitimacy). At the same time, to account for political autonomy - which is at the center of the political and exercised only jointly with others as members of a political community, according to Forst - he would have to substantiate a criterion of legitimacy from normative sources within the political that are not reducible to morality (even if the criterion is ultimately grounded in a moral right to justification). It is this autonomy of the political that Habermas attempts to hold on to.

Eva Erman is Associate Professor at the Department of Government, University of Uppsala, Sweden. She is the author of "Human Rights and Democracy: Discourse Theory and Human Rights Institutions" (Ashgate, 2005) and co-author (with A. Uhlin) of "Legitimacy Beyond the State?" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

See my post on Rainer Forst's book here (with links to some of his papers).

(Thanks to Gary E. Davis for the pointer!)

New book by Habermas: "Nachmetaphysisches Denken II"

A new book by Jürgen Habermas is coming out on Suhrkamp Verlag in October:

"Nachmetaphysisches Denken II - Aufsätze und Repliken"


(350 pages)



Description:

»Wir haben zum nachmetaphysischen Denken keine Alternative.« Dieser Satz, geschrieben von Jürgen Habermas in seiner 1988 erschienenen Aufsatzsammlung Nachmetaphysisches Denken, gilt noch heute. Nachmetaphysisches Denken – das ist zunächst die historische Antwort auf die Krise der Metaphysik nach Hegel, deren zentrale Denkfiguren vor allem durch gesellschaftliche, aber auch durch innerwissenschaftliche Entwicklungen ins Wanken geraten sind. In der Folge wurden das Erkenntnisprivileg der Philosophie erschüttert, ihre Grundbegriffe detranszendentalisiert und der Vorrang der Theorie vor der Praxis in Frage gestellt. Aus guten Gründen hat die philosophische Theorie, so die Diagnose damals, »ihren außeralltäglichen Status eingebüßt«, sich damit aber auch neue Probleme eingehandelt. In Nachmetaphysisches Denken II widmet sich Habermas einigen dieser Probleme in zum Teil bisher unveröffentlichten Texten.

Im ersten Teil des Buches geht es um den Perspektivenwechsel von metaphysischen Weltbildern zur Lebenswelt. Letztere analysiert Habermas als »Raum der Gründe« – auch dort, wo die Sprache (noch) nicht regiert, etwa in der gestischen Kommunikation und im Ritus. Im zweiten Teil steht das spannungsreiche Verhältnis von Religion und nachmetaphysischem Denken im Vordergrund. Habermas schließt hier unmittelbar an seine weitsichtige Bemerkung von 1988 an, wonach die »Philosophie auch in ihrer nachmetaphysischen Gestalt Religion weder ersetzen noch verdrängen« kann, und erkundet etwa das neue Interesse der Philosophie an der Religion. Den Abschluss bilden Texte über die Rolle der Religion im politischen Kontext einer postsäkularen, liberalen Gesellschaft.

Update:
See my updated blog post on Habermas's book here.

Interview with Habermas in "Der Standard"

In the Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" (May 23, 2012), Alexandra Föderl-Schmid and Ronald Pöhl interviews Jürgen Habermas:

"Wollen europäische Bürger Suizid begehen?"

Excerpt:
Standard: Ihre Theorie zufolge sollen die "Unionsbürger" als gleichrangig verfassungserzeugend neben den "europäischen Völkern" zu stehen kommen. Die Finanzminister und Regierungschefs kooperieren etwa mit Institutionen wie der Europäischen Zentralbank und nehmen Input aus dem Finanzsektor auf. Wie kann man Vorgänge transparenter gestalten, damit auch der sogenannte "Normalbürger" Einblicke in wesentliche Entscheidungszusammenhänge erhält?

Habermas: Sie beschreiben ganz richtig die Tendenz von Angela Merkel, unsere politischen Ordnungen auf das Format "marktkonformer Demokratien" zurecht zu stutzen. Stattdessen geht es meiner Meinung nach darum, die Demokratie dadurch zu retten, das völlig aus der Balance geratene Verhältnis von Politik und Markt durch ein handlungsfähiges Europa wieder einigermaßen in Ordnung zu bringen. Mit dem Überleben des Euro steht zugleich die Frage auf dem Spiel, ob wir unsere ohnehin ausgehöhlten nationalen Demokratien vollends zu Fassadendemokratien entarten lassen oder auf europäischer Ebene regenerieren wollen. Diese Frage würde ich auch gerne François Hollande stellen - und meinen nationalrepublikanisch gesonnenen französischen Kollegen.

Habermas receives two awards in Vienna

According to the Austrian newpaper "Der Standard", Jürgen Habermas receives two awards in Vienna on May 23, 2012: The Erwin Chargaff Prize for Ethics and Science and the 2011 Victor Frakl Honorary Award of the City of Vienna.

See the article in "Der Standard" here.

Update:
A report in "Wiener Zeitung" (May 24, 2012) and two pictures here and here!

(Thanks to Burkard Kircher for the pointer!)

Paul Weithman on Legitimacy and Political Liberalism

A new paper by Paul Weithman is available on his web site:

“Legitimacy and the Project of Rawl's Political Liberalism”  (pdf)

The paper is to appear in a volume edited by Thom Brooks and Martha Nussbaum on John Rawls' Political Liberalism (Columbia University Press, forthcoming).

Paul Weithman is Professor of Philosophy at University of Notre Dame. He is the author of "Religion and the Obligations of Citizenship" (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and "Why Political Liberalism? On John Rawls's Political Turn" (Oxford University Press, 2011).

Martha Nussbaum wins Spain's Asturias Prize

Professor Martha Nussbaum has received the 2012 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences. The award is given by Prince Felipe of Spain to those whose work in various disciplines “constitutes a significant contribution to the benefit of Mankind.”

Martha Nussbaum was chosen “for her contribution to the Humanities, the Philosophy of Law and Politics and for her ethical conception of economic development. See the press statement here.

Statement by Martha Nussbaum:
“I am thrilled and deeply honored that the Jury of the Prince of Asturias Prize for Social Sciences has decided to award me this prestigious and important prize. It is a recognition that work on such abstract philosophical topics as social justice, human development, and the nature of the emotions can contribute to the creation of a more humane and just world”.

Previous winners of the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences include Anthony Giddens (2002), Jürgen Habermas (2003), Paul Krugman (2004), Ralf Dahrendorf (2007), and Howard Gardner (2011).

Martha Nussbaum is Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. Her many books include "The Theory of Desire" (Princeton University Press, 1994), "Poetic Justice" (Beacon Press, 1996), "Cultivating Humanity" (Harvard University Press, 1997), "Women and Human Development" (Cambridge University Press, 2000), "Frontiers of Justice" (The Belknap Press, 2006), "Liberty of Conscience" (Basic Books, 2007), "Not For Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities" (Princeton University Press, 2010) and "Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach" (Harvard University Press, 2011).

John Searle on New Realism

Video from a conference on "Prospects of a New Realism" at the University of Bonn, Germany, March 26-28, 2012:

John Searle (UC Berkeley)
"The Unity of Reality: Why We Live in One World at Most" 
(42 minutes)

Other podcasts from the conference here (Hilary Putnam, Susan Haack, Paul Boghossian et.al.).

Neues Buch: Das Realitätsproblem bei Habermas

 

Das Realitätsproblem bei Habermas und die Philosophie des Pragmatismus

von Julia-Constance Dissel

(Verlag Karl Alber, 2012)

240 Seiten

 

Kurzbeschreibung

Unter Einbeziehung der für Habermas’ Theoriebildung relevanten pragmatischen und neo-pragmatischen Ansätze, wie u. a. denen von Wittgenstein, Putnam und Rorty, wird in dieser Arbeit nachgezeichnet, dass Habermas entgegen seiner eigenen Zielsetzung im Kontext der Kommunikationstheorie nicht plausibel darstellt, wie Wissen nach dem linguistic turn in einem realistischen Sinne verstanden werden kann. In diesem Zusammenhang gerät die Kommunikationstheorie selbst nach der in epistemologischer Hinsicht relevanten Modifikation in "Wahrheit und Rechtfertigung" zu einer idealistischen Konstruktionstheorie der Erkenntnis. Als Ursache hierfür wird Habermas’ Versuch ausgemacht, sich von einem inhaltlichen Realismus und in diesem Zusammenhang vom Prinzip des mentalistischen Repräsentationalismus loszusagen. Zur Vermeidung eines Idealismus wird in dieser Arbeit die Möglichkeit eines Festhaltens an einem inhaltlichen Realismus aufgezeigt mit dem zugleich ein offener, dreirelationaler Repräsentationsbegriff im Ausgang der Erkenntnislehre von Charles S. Peirce in Anschlag gebracht wird.

Inhalt [Leseprobe]

I. Einleitung

II. Die Versöhnung einer mit sich selbst zerfallenden Moderne: Von den Aporien der Subjektphilosophie zur Kommunikationstheorie

III. Das Kommunikationsparadigma: Habermas und das Problem der Realitätsanbindung

IV. Zur Signifikanz des Festhaltens an kontexttranszendierenden Ansprüchen, der realistischen Intuition und der repräsentierenden Funktion der Sprache: Rekonstruktion des und Kritik am Anti-Epistemologismus Richard Rortys

V. Resümee: Zu einem erweiterten Begriff der Repräsentation

Waldron lecture on "Political Political Theory"

Professor Jeremy Waldron has posted a new paper at SSRN:

"Political Political Theory: An Oxford Inaugural Lecture"

Abstract:     
This paper was given as an "Inaugural Lecture" for the Chichele Professorship of Social and Political Theory" at Oxford University on May 3, 2012. Political theorists study (1) political virtue, (2) political processes and institutions, and (3) political ideals (like justice, liberty, and equality). Since the time of Hume, Madison, and Kant, it has been thought that (2) is more important than (1), because maybe we can set up institutions that work for the general good whatever the state of virtue of the people who administer them. But in the revival of political philosophy heralded by John Rawls's book in 1971, there has been great emphasis on (3) and not nearly enough emphasis on (2). This is particularly true in the UK. Previous holders of the Chichele chair (G.A. Cohen and Isaiah Berlin) focused almost exclusively on (3) -- with Berlin going so far as to announce that political philosophy was really just the study of "the ends of life." The lecture argues that this way of conceiving the subject-matter of the Chichele chair is at best one-sided.

The lecture argues for a reorientation of political theory teaching and scholarship back towards institutions -- particularly the normative evaluation of various aspects of the political process and the detailed theoretical exploration of institutional principles like democracy, representation, bicameralism, the rule of law, the separation of powers, federalism and so on. It argues that these issues should not be left to empirical or comparative politcial science, because they raise important and complex questions of evaluation -- including dignitary evaluation -- that may be sold short by the pragmatic and consequentialist emphasis of empirical and comparative work. But political theory should respect the empirical study of institutions more than it does, and it should dovetail the normative and evaluative work that political theory involves with the understanding of institutions, processes, and practices that political science generates.

Rahel Jaeggi on "Re-thinking Alienation" (audio)

Professor Rahel Jaeggi's lecture at London School of Economics on March 12, 2012, is available as a podcast:

Re-thinking Alienation [mp3] (84 minutes)

Does modern society cause us to be alienated from ourselves? This lecture will argue that a re-thinking of the philosophical concept of alienation can provide us with an important resource for social critique.

Rahel Jaeggi is Professor for Practical Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the Humboldt University, Berlin. She is the author of "Entfremdung. Zur Aktualität eines sozialphilosophischen Problems" (Campus Verlag, 2005). It is coming out on Columbia University Press: "Alienation (New Directions in Critical Theory)"

See also Frederick Neuhouser's review of "Entfremdung" in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
"Rahel Jaeggi's Entfremdung is one of the most exciting books to have appeared on the German philosophical scene in the last decade."

Translations of Habermas's book on Europe

Jürgen Habermas's latest book on Europe - "Zur Verfassung Europas" (Suhrkamp Verlag, 2011) - is now published in several countries:

English:
"The Crisis of the European Union" (Polity Press, 2012)

Swedish:
"Om Europas författning" (Ersatz, 2011)

Italian:
"Questa Europa è in crisi" (Editori Laterza, 2012)

Spanish:
"La constitución de Europa" (Trotta, 2012)

Portugese:
"Um ensaio sobre a constituição da Europa" (Edicoes 70, 2012)

Dutch:
"Over de constitutie van Europa" (Klement, 2012)

The foreign rights are also sold to France (Editions Gallimard), China (Shanghai People's Publishing House), Russia (Ves Mir), Brazil (Editora UNESP), Japan (Hosei UP), Poland (Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego), Czech Republic (Filosofia), Slovakia (Kalligram), Hungary (Atlantisz), Bulgaria (Critique & Humanism), Romania (comunicare), Bosnia (Fondacija Centar za javno pravo), Greece (Patakis), and Albania (Asdreni).

Podcasts: Seyla Benhabib on Cosmopolitanism

Podcasts from a symposium on "Cosmopolitanism Contested" at the University of Copenhagen on May 3, 2012.

The symposium seeks responses from critical social theory on cosmopolitanism in light of the current challenges to European democracy. How do the various expressions of anti-cosmopolitanism manifest themselves in contemporary Europe? How to discern the proper boundaries between cosmopolitanism and reactions to it (‘anti-cosmopolitanism’)? Is there an intrinsic link between Europeanisation and re-nationalisation (which, in fact, occurs simultaneously and is increasingly constraining the development of European integration)? Does cosmopolitanism beget resistance?

Introduction (mp3) by Ben Rosamond (University of Copenhagen)
[5 minutes]

Presentation (mp3) by Seyla Benhabib (Yale University)
[27 minutes]

Comments and discussion (mp3):
[86 minutes]
Richard Wolin (New York University)
John Erik Fossum (University of Oslo)
Adrian Favell (Sciences Po, Paris)
Gerard Delanty (University of Sussex)

Gerald Gaus on Rawls and Hobbes

Gerald Gaus has posted four new papers at his website:

* "The Turn to a Political Liberalism"
Forthcoming in The Blackwell Companion to Rawls, ed. by David Reidy and Jon Mandle (Wiley-Blackwell)

* "On the Appropriate Mode of Justifying a Public Moral Constitution"
The Harvard Review, forthcoming. [on John Rawls]

* "Social Contract and Social Choice"
Rutgers Law Journal , forthcoming. [on Amartya Sen & John Rawls]

* "Hobbes's Challenge to Public Reason Liberalism"
Forthcoming in Hobbes Today, ed. by S.A. Lloyd (Cambridge University Press). [on Thomas Hobbes & John Rawls]

Gerald Gaus is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. He is the author of "Contemporary Theories of Liberalism: Public Reason as a Post-Enlightenment Project" (Sage, 2003) and "The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World" (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

(Thanks to ABC Democracy for the pointer!)

Lecture at Stanford on Jürgen Habermas

On May 23 at Stanford University, Professor Peter Gordon will give a lecture on Jürgen Habermas:

Between Christian Democracy and Critical Theory:
Jürgen Habermas and the Dialectics of Secularization in Postwar Germany.

Peter Eli Gordon is Professor of History at Harvard University. He is co-editor (with Warren Breckman et.al.) of "The Modernist Imagination: Essays in Intellectual History and Critical Theory in Honor of Martin Jay" (Berghahn Books, 2007).

See his article on Habermas and religion in "The New Republic" (December 14, 2011): "What Hope Remains?"

Manifesto for re-building Europe

90 European intellectuals have published a manifesto for re-building Europe:

We are Europe!
Manifesto for re-building Europe from the bottom up

It is published in a number of European newspapers - Die Zeit, Le Monde, the Guardian, El Pais, La Repubblica, and Politiken.

The appeal has been initiated by French-German Greens MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit and German sociologist Ulrich Beck.

Among the signatories are Jürgen Habermas, Zygmunt Bauman, Joschka Fischer, Anthony Giddens, Alfred Grosser, Jacques Delors, Javier Solana, and Helmut Schmidt.

Also see an article on the manifesto in "Die Zeit" (May 3, 2012):
Alexander Cammann - "Eine irdische Idee. Wie das Manifest entstanden ist".