A video of a panel discussion today in Frankfurt am Main on
"Conceptualizing the Future of Democracy: Combining Representation and Participatory Innovations" (1 hour, 49 minutes)
Statements by the participants:
* Mark Warren (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) [starts 10:50]
* Rainer Forst (Goethe University Frankfurt) [starts 22:30]
* Anne Phillips (London School of Economics and Political Science)
[starts 32:00]
* Jane Mansbridge (Harvard University) [starts 43:00]
Panel discussion. Moderater: Brigitte Geiẞel (Goethe University Frankfurt) [starts 54:30]
Open discussion [starts 1.14:00]
Further information on the conference here.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Monday, September 24, 2018
Habermas in Bad Homburg
Jürgen Habermas participated in a two-days conference in Bad Homburg on "Neue Perspektiven für Europa".
See this report in FAZ:
Thomas Thiel - "Habermas wirft sich für Europa in die Bresche" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 24, 2018)
Excerpts from the report by Andrea Pollmeier in "Frankfurter Rundschau" (September 24):
"Mit tiefer Skepsis blickt der Soziologe und Philosoph Jürgen Habermas auf die gegenwärtige Lage Europas und wendet sich gegen einen Ton der "Dedramatisierung". Zwar drohe trotz Brexit wegen der mächtigen wirtschaftlichen Interessen kein Auseinanderfallen der Eurozone, doch sei dies keine gute, sondern eher eine schlechte Nachricht, erklärte Habermas am Wochenende in Bad Homburg. Ein Weiterführen des Status quo habe schließlich zur Folge, dass die innerpolitischen Polarisierungen in unseren Ländern fortschreiten werden. [....]
Das Erstarken europafeindlicher, rechtsextremer Parteien sei, so Habermas, nicht primär Folge der Migrationspolitik, sondern habe wirtschaftliche Ursachen. Die Währungsunion stelle nicht mehr für alle Mitgliedstaaten eine „Win-win-Situation“ dar. Im ökonomisch boomenden Deutschland werde eigentliche Grund für die fehlende Kooperationsbereitschaft derjenigen verdrängt, die sich heute als Verlierer sehen und sich ungerecht behandelt fühlen. Der Euro sei, so der Soziologe, noch vor der Ost-Erweiterung mit dem politischen Versprechen eingeführt worden, dass sich die Lebensverhältnisse der Menschen in allen Mitgliedstaaten einander angleichen würden. Das Gegenteil dieser Prognose sei jedoch eingetreten. Diese andauernde Diskrepanz der ökonomischen Leistungsbilanzen könne keine Währungsgemeinschaft auf Dauer aushalten. "Ich staune offen gestanden jeden Tag von neuem über die Chuzpe der jetzigen Bundesregierung, die glaubt, die Partner zu Gemeinsamkeit in Fragen der für uns wichtigen Flüchtlings-, Verteidigungs-, Außen- und Außenhandelspolitik gewinnen zu können, während sie gleichzeitig in der zentralen Frage des politischen Ausbaus der Eurozone mauert.""
Photos from the event here.
UPDATE:
An abridged version of Habermas's speech is now available at the website of Social Europe: "“New” Perspectives For Europe".
See this report in FAZ:
Thomas Thiel - "Habermas wirft sich für Europa in die Bresche" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 24, 2018)
Excerpts from the report by Andrea Pollmeier in "Frankfurter Rundschau" (September 24):
"Mit tiefer Skepsis blickt der Soziologe und Philosoph Jürgen Habermas auf die gegenwärtige Lage Europas und wendet sich gegen einen Ton der "Dedramatisierung". Zwar drohe trotz Brexit wegen der mächtigen wirtschaftlichen Interessen kein Auseinanderfallen der Eurozone, doch sei dies keine gute, sondern eher eine schlechte Nachricht, erklärte Habermas am Wochenende in Bad Homburg. Ein Weiterführen des Status quo habe schließlich zur Folge, dass die innerpolitischen Polarisierungen in unseren Ländern fortschreiten werden. [....]
Das Erstarken europafeindlicher, rechtsextremer Parteien sei, so Habermas, nicht primär Folge der Migrationspolitik, sondern habe wirtschaftliche Ursachen. Die Währungsunion stelle nicht mehr für alle Mitgliedstaaten eine „Win-win-Situation“ dar. Im ökonomisch boomenden Deutschland werde eigentliche Grund für die fehlende Kooperationsbereitschaft derjenigen verdrängt, die sich heute als Verlierer sehen und sich ungerecht behandelt fühlen. Der Euro sei, so der Soziologe, noch vor der Ost-Erweiterung mit dem politischen Versprechen eingeführt worden, dass sich die Lebensverhältnisse der Menschen in allen Mitgliedstaaten einander angleichen würden. Das Gegenteil dieser Prognose sei jedoch eingetreten. Diese andauernde Diskrepanz der ökonomischen Leistungsbilanzen könne keine Währungsgemeinschaft auf Dauer aushalten. "Ich staune offen gestanden jeden Tag von neuem über die Chuzpe der jetzigen Bundesregierung, die glaubt, die Partner zu Gemeinsamkeit in Fragen der für uns wichtigen Flüchtlings-, Verteidigungs-, Außen- und Außenhandelspolitik gewinnen zu können, während sie gleichzeitig in der zentralen Frage des politischen Ausbaus der Eurozone mauert.""
Photos from the event here.
UPDATE:
An abridged version of Habermas's speech is now available at the website of Social Europe: "“New” Perspectives For Europe".
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Albrecht Wellmer dies at 85
The German philosopher Albrecht Wellmer died on September 13, 2018. He was 85.
Obituaries:
Martin Seel - "Dialogisches Denken der besten Art" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Stefan Müller-Doohm - "Kritik, Musik und Sprache" (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Albrecht Wellmer was an assistant to Jürgen Habermas at the University of Frankfurt from 1966 to 1970 and later professor of philosophy at the University of Konstanz, the New York School for Social Research, and the The Free University of Berlin.
He was the author of:
* "Methodologie als Erkenntnistheorie. Zur Wissenschaftslehre Karl R. Poppers" (1967).
* "Kritische Gesellschaftstheorie und Positivismus" (Suhrkamp, 1969)
* "Praktische Philosophie und Theorie der Gesellschaft. Zum Problem der normativen Grundlagen einer kritischen Sozialwissenschaft" (Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 1979)
* "Ethik und Dialog. Elemente des moralischen Urteils bei Kant und in der Diskursethik" (Suhrkamp, 1986)
* "Endspiele. Die unversöhnliche Moderne. Essays und Vorträge" (Suhrkamp, 1993)
* "Revolution und Interpretation. Demokratie ohne Letztbegründung" (Van Grocum, 1998)
In English:
* "Critical Theory of Society" (Herder, 1971)
* "The Persistence of Modernity" (Polity Press, 1991)
Obituaries:
Martin Seel - "Dialogisches Denken der besten Art" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung)
Stefan Müller-Doohm - "Kritik, Musik und Sprache" (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Albrecht Wellmer was an assistant to Jürgen Habermas at the University of Frankfurt from 1966 to 1970 and later professor of philosophy at the University of Konstanz, the New York School for Social Research, and the The Free University of Berlin.
He was the author of:
* "Methodologie als Erkenntnistheorie. Zur Wissenschaftslehre Karl R. Poppers" (1967).
* "Kritische Gesellschaftstheorie und Positivismus" (Suhrkamp, 1969)
* "Praktische Philosophie und Theorie der Gesellschaft. Zum Problem der normativen Grundlagen einer kritischen Sozialwissenschaft" (Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 1979)
* "Ethik und Dialog. Elemente des moralischen Urteils bei Kant und in der Diskursethik" (Suhrkamp, 1986)
* "Endspiele. Die unversöhnliche Moderne. Essays und Vorträge" (Suhrkamp, 1993)
* "Revolution und Interpretation. Demokratie ohne Letztbegründung" (Van Grocum, 1998)
* "Sprachphilosophie" (Suhrkamp, 2004)
* "Wie Worte Sinn machen. Aufsätze zur Sprachphilosophie" (Suhrkamp, 2007)
* "Versuch über Musik und Sprache" (Hanser, 2009)In English:
* "Critical Theory of Society" (Herder, 1971)
* "The Persistence of Modernity" (Polity Press, 1991)
* "Endgames" (MIT Press, 1998)
For a fine tribute to Wellmer see Axel Honneth's "Artist of Dissonance: Albrecht Wellmer and Critical Theory" (Constellations, vol. 14 no. 3 (2007), pp. 305-314.
For a fine tribute to Wellmer see Axel Honneth's "Artist of Dissonance: Albrecht Wellmer and Critical Theory" (Constellations, vol. 14 no. 3 (2007), pp. 305-314.
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
New book: "Dialogues avec Jürgen Habermas"
Dialogues avec Jürgen Habermas
Ed. by Isabelle Aubert & Jean-François Kervégan
(CNRS Editions, 2018)
498 pages
The book contains the papers from an international colloquium held in Paris in October 2014: "Les perspectives de la démocratie face aux transformations du capitalisme. Un dialogue avec Jürgen Habermas".
Contents
Présentation - Isabelle Aubert & Jean-François Kervégan
I. Questions sur l’Europe
"La transformation de l’Union européenne en démocratie transnationale. Pourquoi est-elle nécessaire et comment est-elle possible?" [English] - Jürgen Habermas
"L’Europe est-elle démocratisable?" - Catherine Colliot-Thélène
"L’inclusion des autres Européens. Voyager avec Habermas à travers l’Europe et au-delà" - Daniel Innerarity
II. Habermas et la tradition critique de l’Ecole de Francfort
"De la Théorie critique" - Albrecht Wellmer [abstract in English]
"Critique de la domination et théorie de la démocratie" - Katia Genel
"Travail et interaction. Origines et implications d’une distinction" - Emmanuel Renault
"La théorie de l’apprentissage et la place de la critique chez Habermas" - Jean-Marc Durand-Gasselin
III. Espace public, industrie culturelle et démocratie
"Habermas et les médias" - Olivier Voirol
"L’espace public et la démocratie réelle" - Clotilde Nouët
"Habermas et les institutions de l’espace public. Un bilan dans le contexte néo-libéral" - Gérard Raulet
IV. Pouvoir et liberté
"La nature nouménale du pouvoir" - Rainer Forst
"Autorité et autonomie" - Maeve Cooke
"Habermas et le »politique«" - Geminello Preterossi
"»Sommes-nous habitués à la liberté politique«? Participation politique dans le capitalisme tardif" - Francesca Raimondi
Habermas et la solidarité face aux mutations africaines de la démocratie -Edmond-Yao Kouassi
V. Droit et transformations sociales
"L’»autre forme« de la domination. Droit et société" - Christoph Menke
"Citoyenneté et langage des droits" - Isabelle Aubert
"Souveraineté partagée, nation et communauté juridique" - Klaus Günther
"Le droit international délibératif : cosmopolitisation ou constitutionnalisation du droit international?" - Valéry Pratt
"Le droit subjectif à la politique et le problème de l’accélération sociale" - Esther L. Neuhann
VI. Crises et capitalisme
"Crise de légitimation? Des contradictions politiques du capitalisme financiarisé" [Lecture] - Nancy Fraser
"Crise, capitalisme, réflexivité. Pour une réactualisation de l’idée adornienne d’impuissance" - Estelle Ferrarese
"Economie, travail et démocratie dans la Théorie critique" - Pınar Karaoğlu
VII. Les contours de la modernité
"Peut-on traduire des énoncés religieux en énoncés séculiers?" - Alexandre Dupeyrix
"La problématique de la modernité chez Habermas: retour sur un ancien débat" - Khaldoun Alnabwani
"Parviendrons-nous à penser de manière postmétaphysique?" - Jean-François Kervégan [summary in German]
VIII. Réplique de Jürgen Habermas
"Réplique" [pp. 459-490] - Jürgen Habermas
[The reply deals with five topics: (1) Democracy and globalization, (2) The European Union as an example of transnationalisation, (3) The conceptualization of the economy in the critical theory of society, (4) Criticism of domination and the concept of "the political", and (5) The theoretical tradition of Frankfurt.
It was written by Jürgen Habermas a few months after the colloquium, after he had read most of the papers. He resumed and systematized the long interventions he made during the conference.]
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Tribute to Charles Taylor
The current issue of "Philosophy & Social Criticism" (vol. 44 issue 7) contains 24 "short reflections" in honor of Charles Taylor's 85th birthday in November 2016.
All the contributions were published in the German journal "Transit. Europäische Revue" 49/2016.
Contents [pdf]
Introduction: Mapping Charles Taylor - Ulf Bohmann, Gesche Keding, Hartmut Rosa
Abstract: The extensive, profound and influential oeuvre of Charles Taylor has inspired generations of thinkers. But how can we explore such a body of work? As we try to show in this Special Issue: by understanding him literally and making use of his notion of moral maps – or, differently put, by ‘mapping’ Charles Taylor. As he is far too modest a person to reveal to us his own moral atlas, we have decided to seize the occasion of his 85th birthday to ask several of his renowned colleagues, students and interlocutors to contribute to the reconstruction of such a map. This introduction develops three ‘mountain ridges’ in this cartography – a philosophical anthropology in spatial terms, the indispensable motif of dialogue, and the role of political life –, around which the following 24 illuminating appraisals are grouped.
1. A strong evaluator - Jocelyn Maclure
2. A capacious mind [preview] - Steven Lukes
3. Charles Taylor, today, yesterday, and tomorrow - William E. Connolly
4. The creature of language: Three postcards to Chuck [preview] - Eduardo Mendieta
5. The art of holding opposites together [preview] - Alessandro Ferrara
6. Seeing differently, or: How I discovered the Sources of the Self [preview] - Michael Kühnlein
7. Ordinary life [preview] - Nicholas H. Smith
8. Dialogical animals - James Tully
9. Charles Taylor as polemicist [preview] - Hans Joas
10. For Charles Taylor. An appreciation - Nancy Fraser
11. Charles Taylor and dramatic narrative. Argument and genre [preview] - Alasdair MacIntyre
12. Philosophy and self-expression [preview] [German text] - Arto Laitinen
13. Higher goods and common goods. Strong evaluation in social life [preview] - Maeve Cooke
14. Thinking better of ourselves - Craig Calhoun
15. Taylor’s Hegel - Axel Honneth
16. Encounters with and impulses from Charles Taylor [preview] - Ludwig Nagl
17. Enlarging the dialogue - Richard J. Bernstein
18. Resonance – A key concept in the philosophy of Charles Taylor [preview] - Jürgen Goldstein
19. Cultures of democracy [preview] [German text] - Darío Montero
20. Essays in retrieval. Charles Taylor as a theorist of historical change [preview] - Paolo Costa
21. Freedom – A silent but significant thread across Taylor’s oeuvre [preview] - Ruth Abbey
22. The power of recognition. When Charles Taylor parsed personal identity [preview] - Amy Gutmann
23. Charles Taylor at the front line in Canadian politics [preview] - Guy Laforest
24. A letter to an old friend and colleague on his birthday - Jürgen Habermas
Excerpt: "There is a simple explanation for my undying interest in your continuously evolving philosophical work: in my view, we still pursue the same project, although perhaps from opposing vantage points by now. At any rate, we continue to be linked by the same topics, beginning with the “politics of recognition” in our multicultural immigrant societies up to the more profound historical and philosophical debate on religion as one of the still-living spiritual manifestations of the present age. Your third major book, A Secular Age, has once again shown that you remain far ahead of my own thinking. Moreover, since 1996 I have not only understood the theoretical impact of your Catholic background much more clearly, but also the reason for our opposing perspectives: what from my point of view separates a secular from a religious self-understanding, namely the unreserved openness to fallibility and rational discourse across the board, appears to mean from your point of view a nongeneralizable element of just one among the many context-bound and incessantly competing worldviews. If, however, as you believe, this pluralism of worldviews (which we can reasonably expect to remain unresolved) is precisely what characterizes the unabatedly particularistic self-understanding of modernity, then I imagine you can live with our amicable disagreements quite well. For the future, I wish you more of the same energy and clear mind you have shown as a philosophical wanderer thus far."
All the contributions were published in the German journal "Transit. Europäische Revue" 49/2016.
Contents [pdf]
Introduction: Mapping Charles Taylor - Ulf Bohmann, Gesche Keding, Hartmut Rosa
Abstract: The extensive, profound and influential oeuvre of Charles Taylor has inspired generations of thinkers. But how can we explore such a body of work? As we try to show in this Special Issue: by understanding him literally and making use of his notion of moral maps – or, differently put, by ‘mapping’ Charles Taylor. As he is far too modest a person to reveal to us his own moral atlas, we have decided to seize the occasion of his 85th birthday to ask several of his renowned colleagues, students and interlocutors to contribute to the reconstruction of such a map. This introduction develops three ‘mountain ridges’ in this cartography – a philosophical anthropology in spatial terms, the indispensable motif of dialogue, and the role of political life –, around which the following 24 illuminating appraisals are grouped.
1. A strong evaluator - Jocelyn Maclure
2. A capacious mind [preview] - Steven Lukes
3. Charles Taylor, today, yesterday, and tomorrow - William E. Connolly
4. The creature of language: Three postcards to Chuck [preview] - Eduardo Mendieta
5. The art of holding opposites together [preview] - Alessandro Ferrara
6. Seeing differently, or: How I discovered the Sources of the Self [preview] - Michael Kühnlein
7. Ordinary life [preview] - Nicholas H. Smith
8. Dialogical animals - James Tully
9. Charles Taylor as polemicist [preview] - Hans Joas
10. For Charles Taylor. An appreciation - Nancy Fraser
11. Charles Taylor and dramatic narrative. Argument and genre [preview] - Alasdair MacIntyre
12. Philosophy and self-expression [preview] [German text] - Arto Laitinen
13. Higher goods and common goods. Strong evaluation in social life [preview] - Maeve Cooke
14. Thinking better of ourselves - Craig Calhoun
15. Taylor’s Hegel - Axel Honneth
16. Encounters with and impulses from Charles Taylor [preview] - Ludwig Nagl
17. Enlarging the dialogue - Richard J. Bernstein
18. Resonance – A key concept in the philosophy of Charles Taylor [preview] - Jürgen Goldstein
19. Cultures of democracy [preview] [German text] - Darío Montero
20. Essays in retrieval. Charles Taylor as a theorist of historical change [preview] - Paolo Costa
21. Freedom – A silent but significant thread across Taylor’s oeuvre [preview] - Ruth Abbey
22. The power of recognition. When Charles Taylor parsed personal identity [preview] - Amy Gutmann
23. Charles Taylor at the front line in Canadian politics [preview] - Guy Laforest
24. A letter to an old friend and colleague on his birthday - Jürgen Habermas
Excerpt: "There is a simple explanation for my undying interest in your continuously evolving philosophical work: in my view, we still pursue the same project, although perhaps from opposing vantage points by now. At any rate, we continue to be linked by the same topics, beginning with the “politics of recognition” in our multicultural immigrant societies up to the more profound historical and philosophical debate on religion as one of the still-living spiritual manifestations of the present age. Your third major book, A Secular Age, has once again shown that you remain far ahead of my own thinking. Moreover, since 1996 I have not only understood the theoretical impact of your Catholic background much more clearly, but also the reason for our opposing perspectives: what from my point of view separates a secular from a religious self-understanding, namely the unreserved openness to fallibility and rational discourse across the board, appears to mean from your point of view a nongeneralizable element of just one among the many context-bound and incessantly competing worldviews. If, however, as you believe, this pluralism of worldviews (which we can reasonably expect to remain unresolved) is precisely what characterizes the unabatedly particularistic self-understanding of modernity, then I imagine you can live with our amicable disagreements quite well. For the future, I wish you more of the same energy and clear mind you have shown as a philosophical wanderer thus far."
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