Tine Stein (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen):
"Claus Offe (1940–2025): A Tribute to His Academic Work and His Role as a Political Intellectual"
(Constellations, forthcoming) Open access
Tine Stein (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen):
"Claus Offe (1940–2025): A Tribute to His Academic Work and His Role as a Political Intellectual"
(Constellations, forthcoming) Open access
Jürgen Habermas dies at age 96:
* FAZ - "Jürgen Habermas im Alter von 96 Jahren gestorben"
Public Intellectual and Engaged Critical Theorist
(Columbia University Press, 2026)
432 pages
Description
This book transforms our understanding of Habermas by focusing on his work as a public intellectual, showing how he has shaped debates far beyond the ivory tower. Peter J. Verovšek argues that while Habermas maintains a strict separation between his academic and his public-facing writings, he has also ensured that these two aspects of his work are part of a consistent whole. The book highlights the development of Habermas’s views over time and the changing nature of his public interventions. His early political writings focused on questions tied to the particular situation of postwar West Germany, but since 1989 he has increasingly turned his attention to the future of Europe and global politics more broadly. Verovšek sheds light on the interrelationship between Habermas’s participation in the public sphere and his theoretical work, demonstrating that his political engagement is crucial to understanding his philosophy. In a moment when public debate is under threat, this book offers timely new insight into Habermas’s lifelong project of defending the public sphere - both in theory and in practice.
Contents
Introduction: Habermas the Public Intellectual
1. Mediating Theory and Practice
2. The Journalistic Years, 1951–1955
3. At the Institute for Social Research, 1956–1959
4. A Partisan Professor in the Student Movement, 1960–1971
5. Retreat to Starnberg, 1971–1982
6. Return to the Public Sphere, 1983–1992
7. A Turn From Germany to Europe, 1993–2009
8. The Colonization of Politics by Economics, 2010–2020
Conclusion: The Last Public Intellectual? 2021–2025
Eine Revision der Theorien von Apel und Habermas
von Dorothea Apel
(Verlag Karl Alber, 2026)
468 Seiten
Kurzbeschreibung
Was bedeutet Wahrhaftigkeit – und welche Rolle spielt sie in unserem moralischen Handeln? Dieses Buch unternimmt eine grundlegende Revision und Weiterentwicklung der Diskursethik von Jürgen Habermas und Karl-Otto Apel. Im Zentrum steht eine fundierte Neubestimmung des Begriffs der Wahrhaftigkeit, der in den klassischen Theorien der Diskursethik bislang fälschlich als Geltungsanspruch behandelt wurde und als solcher randständig geblieben ist. Die Autorin entwickelt demgegenüber die These, dass Wahrhaftigkeit – verstanden als Orientierung an den gattungsethischen Gütern des unhintergehbaren Diskurses – den moralischen Kern menschlichen Handelns bildet. Sie argumentiert, dass dieser diskursethische Maßstab auch dann seine Gültigkeit behält, wenn Diskurse faktisch scheitern oder nicht mehr verantwortbar sind.
Inhalt
Einleitung
Terminologische Anmerkungen
Kapitel I: Kritik am "Wahrhaftigkeitsanspruch" als "Geltungsanspruch der Rede"
Kapitel II: Das Gute versus das Gerechte
Kapitel III: Eine transzendentalpragmatische Neubestimmung von Wahrhaftigkeit
Überblick über den Argumentationsgang
A new paper by Rainer Forst:
"Toward a Critical Theory of Trust"
(Political Theory, forthcoming) [Open access]
Abstract:
"This paper lays some groundwork for a critical theory of trust. It challenges widespread assumptions in trust research according to which “thick” forms of trust emerge in socially and culturally homogeneous communities, which regard trust and conflict as opposing terms, or that view trust generally as a value. The paper suggests a distinction between a general, non-normative concept and various normative conceptions of trust, depending on context. With regard to the justification of trust, a distinction between particular and full justification is introduced, and the justification of trust is linked to relations of justification between trusters and trusted. Finally, it argues that trust in conflicts emerges where such relations exist among the parties of a conflict."
Also:
Rainer Forst. "A Critical Theory of Trust", ConTrust Podcast, 2025.
Rainer Forst: "The Justification of Trust in Conflict. Conceptual and Normative Groundwork", ConTrust Working Paper, 2022.
Nicole Deitelhoff, Rainer Forst, Vinzenz Hediger & Tobias Wille: "Trust in Conflict", ConTrust Working Paper, 2022.
Ed. by Amirhosein Khandizaji & James J. Chriss
(Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2026)
405 pages
Contents
1. James J. Chriss & Amirhosein Khandizaji – Introduction [Preview]
2. Hans-Herbert Kögler – Between Dialogue and Empathy: On Multiple Sources of Moral Agency After Habermas [Preview]
3. Michael J. Thompson – On the Ontological Content of Morality: A Critique of Habermas and the Postmetaphysical Turn
4. Simon Susen – Habermas and the Task of Contemporary Philosophy [Abstract]
5. Stefano Petrucciani – Reconceiving Emancipation: Habermas’s Critique of Marxian Monism [Abstract]
6. Darrow Schecter – Heller, Abendroth, and Habermas: Communicative Action Between Plebiscitary Democracy and Social Statehood [Abstract]
7. James J. Criss – Habermas, Mead, Husserl: A Triadic Exploration
8. Alexandro Ferrara – What the Controversy over "The Reasonable" Reveals: On Habermas’s Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie [Abstract]
9. Peter J. Verovšek – The Last Public Intellectual? Jürgen Habermas in the Digital Public Sphere [Abstract]
Updated and corrected versions of my Jürgen Habermas bibliographies are now available on HabermasForum:
Primary literature
* Jürgen Habermas: Bibliography 1951–2025
* Jürgen Habermas: Articles, lectures, interviews, and books 1992–2025
Secondary literature
* Books and articles on Jürgen Habermas, Part 1: 1961–1981
* Books and articles on Jürgen Habermas, Part 2: 1982–1991
* Books and articles on Jürgen Habermas, Part 3: 1992–2000
* Books and articles on Jürgen Habermas, Part 4: 2001–2009
* Books and articles on Jürgen Habermas, Part 5: 2010–2018
* Books and articles on Jürgen Habermas, Part 6: 2019–2026
Professor Thomas M. Schmidt (Frankfurt) died on December 31, 2025:
See
* Rainer Forst - "Thomas M. Schmidt – Die Religion im Diskurs der Moderne" (Frankfurter Rundschau)
* Matthias Lutz-Bachmann - "Vernünftige Freiheit? Religion in der sich auflösenden Moderne" (Goethe Universität Frankfurt)
See also my blog post on "Festschrift für Thomas M. Schmidt" (2025).
Eduardo Mendieta died from cancer on December 17, 2025:
* Daily Nous (Justin Weinberg)
* Progressive Geographies (Stuart Elden)