Neues Buch: "Habermas und die Religion" (2. Auflage)

Habermas und die Religion (2. Auflage)

Hrsg. von Klaus Viertbauer & Franz Gruber

(Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft WBG, 2019)





Kurzbeschreibung

Seit Ende der 1980er-Jahre öffnet Habermas sich langsam dem Dialog mit akademischen Vertretern der Religion. Doch nimmt er Religion nicht einfach als eine soziologische Kategorie wahr, sondern tritt in einen tiefgreifenden Austausch mit Theologen und Religionsphilosophen. 

Der Band analysiert das Verhältnis von Habermas zur Religion erstmals umfassend und bestimmt es nicht nur in seiner historisch-genealogischen Tiefe, sondern ordnet es auch in der gegenwärtigen Diskurslandschaft ein.

Für die vorliegende 2. Auflage wurde der Band durchgesehen und erweitert - so greift er nun auch die Rezeption der Religionsphilosophie Hegels auf und behandelt das aktuelle Thema der Bioethik. 

Inhalt [Leseprobe]

Einleitung
Von der Säkularisierungsthese zu einer postsäkularen Gesellschaft - Klaus Viertbauer

I. Kontexte und Konstellationen

1. Jürgen Habermas und Kants Religionsphilosophie - Friedo Ricken
2. Habermas und Hegel als Denker der Moderne - Thomas M. Schmidt (NEU)
3. Schleiermacher und Kierkegaard in der Sicht "nachmetaphysischen Denkens" - Maureen Junker-Kenny
4. Habermas' partielle Zuwendung zum Pragmatismus - Ludwig Nagl
5. Habermas und die neue Metaphysik - Klaus Müller
6. Liberal, deliberativ oder dekonstruktivistisch? - Michael Reder

II. Diskurse und Rezeptionslinien

7. Diskursethik und Leidenserfahrungen - Ottmar John
8. Habermas und die Öffentliche Theologie - Andreas Telser
9. Nicht zugänglich! Nicht verständlich! Nicht akzeptabel! [Englisch] - Maeve Cooke
10. Kommunikatives Handeln und Glaubensbegründung - Franz Gruber
11. Kommunikatives Vernunft, Religion und Gottesrede - Edmund Arens (NEU)
12. Sozialethik postsäkular? Diskursethik und katholische Soziallehre - Hans-Joachim Höhn
13. Jürgen Habermas und der Vernunft, den moralischen Status des Embryos diskursethisch zu begründen - Klaus Viertbauer (NEU)
14. Vom Ritual zur Sprache - Von der Sprache zum Ritual - Florian Uhl

Ausgewählte Schriften von Claus Offe

Ausgewählte Schriften von Claus Offe

















Band 1: Macht und Effizienz: Studien zur kapitalistischen Rationalisierung der Arbeit (Springer Verlag, 2018)

Leseprobe (PDF)

Preview

1. Sozialökonomie des Arbeitsmarktes: primäres und sekundäres Machtgefälle (1984)
2. Perspektiven auf die Zukunft des Arbeitsmarktes. „Orthodoxie“, „Realismus“ und „dritte Wege“ (1983)
3. Zur institutionellen Ordnung von Arbeitsmarkt und „Arbeitsgesellschaft“ (2003)
4. Die Zukunft des Arbeitsmarktes. Zur Ergänzungsbedürftigkeit eines versagenden Allokationsprinzips (1982)
5. Arbeitszeitflexibilisierung – Alternative zu allgemeinen Arbeitszeitverkürzungen? (1983)
6. Work, Time, and Social Participation. Policy Options for Dealing with Labor Market Precariousness (1999)
7. Die Widersprüche des Sozialen (2001)
8. Der Niedriglohnsektor und das „Modell Deutschland“ (2002)
9. Am Arbeitsmarkt vorbei. Überlegungen zur Neubestimmung "haushaltlicher“ Wohlfahrtsproduktion in ihrem Verhältnis zu Markt und Staat (1986)
10. Die Entwicklungsdynamik des Dienstleistungssektors (1976)
11. The Vanishing “Shadow of the Future”* (2011)
12. Das Rationalisierungsdilemma der Angestelltenarbeit. Arbeitssoziologische Überlegungen zur Erklärung des Status von kaufmännischen Angestellten aus der Eigenschaft ihrer Arbeit als „Dienstleistungsarbeit“ (1981)
13. Das Wachstum der Dienstleistungsarbeit: Vier soziologische Erklärungsansätze (1984)
14. Two Logics of Collective Action (1980)
15. Conceptualizing “Capitalism” (2011)


Band 2: Der Wohlfahrtsstaat und seine Bürger (Springer Verlag, 2018)

Leseprobe (PDF)

Preview

1. Politisch-soziologische Erklärungsansätze für Funktionen und Innovationsprozesse der Sozialpolitik (1977)
2. The German welfare state: principles, performance and prospects after unification (1999)
3. Sozialstaat (2008)
4. Some Contradictions of the Modern Welfare State (1981)
5. Democracy against the Welfare State ? Structural Foundations of Neoconservative Political Opportunities (1987)
6. Akzeptanz und Legitimität strategischer Optionen in der Sozialpolitik (1990)
7. Schock, Fehlkonstrukt oder Droge ? Über drei Lesarten der Sozialstaatskrise (1995)
8. Bildungssystem, Beschäftigungssystem und Bildungspolitik – Ansätze zu einer gesamtgesellschaftlichen Funktionsbestimmung des Bildungswesens (1975)
9. Armut und städtische Armutspolitik (1991)
10. A Non-Productivist Design for Social Policies (1992)
11. Basic Income and the Labor Contract (2009)
12. Wasteful Welfare transactions: Why basic income security is fundamental (2005)
13. Towards a new equilibrium of citizens’ rights and economic resources ? (1997)
14. Inequality and the Labor Market – Theories, opinions, models, and practices of unequal distribution and how they can be justified (2010)


Band 3: Institutionen, Normen, Bürgertugenden (Springer Verlag, 2019)

Leseprobe (PDF)

1. Political Institutions and Social Power: Conceptual Explorations (2006)
2. Civil society and social order: demarcating and combining market, state and community (2000)
3. Fessel und Bremse. Moralische und institutionelle Aspekte „intelligenter Selbstbeschränkung“ (1989)
4. Moderne „Barbarei“: Der Naturzustand im Kleinformat? (1996)
5. Die Ehrlichkeit politischer Kommunikationen. Kognitive Hygiene und strategischer Umgang mit der Wahrheit (1993)
6. Die Utopie der Null-Option. Modernität und Modernisierung als politische Gütekriterien (1986)
7. How can we trust our fellow citizens? (1999)
8. Pflichten versus Kosten: Typen und Kontexte solidarischen Handelns (2004)
9. „Verantwortlich sein“ und „verantwortlich gemacht werden“. Zur Grammatik und Semantik verantwortlichen Handelns (2005)
10. Shared Social Responsibility. Reflections on the need for and supply of “responsible” patterns of social action (2010)
11. What, if anything, may we mean by “progressive” politics today? (2001)
12. New Social Movements: Challenging the Boundaries of Institutional Politics (1985)
13. Reflections on the Institutional Self-transformation of Movement Politics: A Tentative Stage Model (1990)
14. Vier Hypothesen über historische Folgen der Studentenbewegung (1998)1
15. The Politics of Parity: Can Legal Intervention Neutralize the Gender Divide? (2001)
16. Wessen Wohl ist das Gemeinwohl? (2001)
17. Nach dem „Ende der Utopie“: die Zivilgesellschaft als Fortschrittsidee? (2004)
18. Die kritische Funktion der Sozialwissenschaften (1975)
19. Do Western Universities Have a Mission to Educate? Thoughts on expertise and judgment (2007)
20. Akademische Soziologie und politischer Protest: Der Frankfurter Soziologentag 1968 (2012)


Band 4: Liberale Demokratie und soziale Macht: Demokratie-theoretische Studien (Forthcoming, 2019)


Band 5: Staatskapazität und Europäische Integration (Forthcoming, 2019) 


Band 6: Übergänge: Vom Staatssozialismus zum demokratischen Kapitalismus (Forthcoming, 2019)

New book by Habermas on the history of philosophy [updated]

A new book by Jürgen Habermas is coming out on Suhrkamp Verlag in September 2019:

Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie (1.700 pages)

Band 1: Die okzidentale Konstellation von Glauben und Wissen 

Band 2: Vernünftige Freiheit. Spuren des Diskurses über Glauben und Wissen 

Kurzbeschreibung

"Das neue Buch von Jürgen Habermas ist auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie. Es gibt im Stil einer Genealogie darüber Auskunft, wie die heute dominanten Gestalten des westlichen nachmetaphysischen Denkens entstanden sind. Als Leitfaden dient ihm der Diskurs über Glauben und Wissen, der aus zwei starken achsenzeitlichen Traditionen im römischen Kaiserreich hervorgegangen ist. Habermas zeichnet nach, wie sich die Philosophie sukzessive aus ihrer Symbiose mit der Religion gelöst und säkularisiert hat. In systematischer Perspektive arbeitet er die entscheidenden Konflikte, Lernprozesse und Zäsuren heraus sowie die sie begleitenden Transformationen in Wissenschaft, Recht, Politik und Gesellschaft.

Das neue Buch von Jürgen Habermas ist aber nicht nur eine Geschichte der Philosophie. Es ist auch eine Reflexion über die Aufgabe einer Philosophie, die an der vernünftigen Freiheit kommunikativ vergesellschafteter Subjekte festhält: Sie soll darüber aufklären, »was unsere wachsenden wissenschaftlichen Kenntnisse von der Welt für uns bedeuten – für uns als Menschen, als moderne Zeitgenossen und als individuelle Personen«."


On the forthcoming book see:

* Jürgen Habermas - "Acceptance Speech", receiving the John W. Kluge Prize in Washington September 29, 2015.  

* Jürgen Habermas - "The New Philosophical Interest in Religion. A Conversation with Eduardo Mendieta", Jürgen Habermas - Postmetaphysical Thinking II (Polity Press, 2017), pp. 59-76. Online version here. 

* Eduardo Mendieta - "Appendix: Religion in Habermas's Work", Craig Calhoun, Eduardo Mendieta, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen - Habermas and Religion (Polity Press, 2013), pp. 403-407.

* Eduardo Mendieta - "Religion", Amy Allen & Eduardo Mendieta (eds) - The Cambridge Habermas Lexicon (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2019) pp. 394-399.

According to Eduardo Mendieta, Habermas's manuscript in the fall of 2017 consisted of the following nine chapters (The Cambridge Habermas Lexicon, 2019, p. 398f):

"The first chapter deals with the genealogy of postmetaphysical thinking, and begins with the crisis scenarios and histories of decay that have characterized the philosophy of the twentieth century.

The second chapter is an intensive engagement with Jaspers’ notion of the Axial Age, focusing on the “sacred roots of the inheritance of the Axial Age,” and taking up themes such as the cognitive breakthrough and preservation of the sacred core of Axial Age religions, the relationship between myth and ritual, the meaning of ritual practices, and the path of the Axial Age’s transformation of consciousness.  

The third chapter engages in a comparative view of the different Axial Age pictures of the world, and here Habermas takes up themes in ancient Judaism, Buddha’s teachings and practice, Confucianism, and Taoism, and ancient Greek “philosophy of nature” up through Socrates. 

Chapter four, which focuses on the “Symbiosis of Faith and Knowledge in Christian Platonism and the development of the Roman-Catholic Church,” has extensive engagements with Plotinus and Augustine. 

Chapter five focuses on “Christian Europe” and the advancing differentiation between the “sacerdotium” and “regnum.” In this chapter we encounter treatments of Aristotle’s challenge to thirteenth century theology, and Aquinas’s response, as well as the consequences for political philosophy of the ontologization of Aristotelian ethics. 

Chapter six, titled “The Via Moderna,” engages Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, and the “nominalistic revolution,” as well as the works of Machiavelli and Francisco de Vittoria. 

Chapter seven deals with the “separation between faith and knowledge,” and focuses on the relationship between Protestantism and the rise of the philosophy of the subject. 

Chapter eight focuses on the emergence of postmetaphysical thinking in the works of Hume and Kant. 

Finally, chapter nine, titled “The Linguistic Corporalization of Reason. From Subjective Spirit to the Communicatively Socialized Learning Subject,” focuses on the factors that catalyzed paradigm shifts, and concludes, for the moment, on certain motifs in the linguistic turn in the works of Herder, Schleiermacher, and Humboldt."


Maybe the title of Habermas's book is a reference to Johann Gottfried Herder's "Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie zur Bildung der Menschheit" (1774) ["This Too a Philosophy of History for the Formation of Humanity"] and his book  "Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit" (1784-1791) ["Ideas for a Philosophy of the History of Mankind"]


UPDATE: The table of contents has been published by Suhrkamp Verlag here [pdf].

Habermas on Inequality in the EU

A new contribution by Jürgen Habermas to the debate on populism and inequality in the European Union:

"La disuguaglianza avvelena l’Europa più dei sovranismi" 
(The Italiann newspaper "la Repubblica" March 21, 2019)


See also Jürgen Habermas's "New Perspectives for Europe" (September, 2018).

Excerpts from "la Repubblica":

"I temi dell’immigrazione e delle politiche di riconoscimento dell’asilo politico, che dal settembre del 2015 dominano i media in Germania e catturano in modo esclusivo l’attenzione dell’opinione pubblica, si propongono come risposta immediata alla domanda sulla causa determinante dei sempre più acuti riflessi di difesa antieuropeisti. Ma se si considera l’Europa nel suo complesso, e soprattutto l’eurozona nel suo complesso, l’aumento delle migrazioni non può costituire la spiegazione primaria per la crescita dei populismi di destra; e questo perché il mutamento nell’opinione pubblica si è prodotto molto prima, in risposta alle controverse politiche intraprese per superare la crisi finanziaria che iniziò nel 2008 e la crisi del debito sovrano innescata dalla crisi economica del 2010." (......)

"I sentimenti antieuropei, in maniera totalmente indipendente dal tema delle migrazioni, scaturiscono dalla realistica percezione che l’Unione monetaria non sia più un vantaggio per tutti i paesi membri. Il Sud dell’Europa contro il Nord e viceversa: i “perdenti” si sentono trattati ingiustamente, i “vincitori” respingono tali imputazioni. Come si è fatto evidente, il rigido sistema di regole imposte agli Stati membri dell’Unione monetaria europea va a tutto vantaggio dei paesi economicamente più forti, senza offrire in cambio alcuno spazio né alcuna attribuzione di competenze tale da condurre a un’azione condivisa e dotata di flessibilità. Perciò, a mio parere, la questione su cui davvero emergono differenze di vedute politiche non è quella riguardante l’essere a favore o contro l’Unione europea. L’unico modo in cui l’Unione potrebbe guadagnare capacità di azione politica e recuperare il supporto dei suoi cittadini sarebbe attraverso l’istituzione, a livello europeo, di poteri e risorse per programmi democraticamente legittimati miranti a contrastare l’acuirsi delle divergenze economiche e sociali tra gli Stati membri."

An Intellectual Biography of John Rawls

John Rawls. The Path to a Theory of Justice

by Andrius Gališanka

(Harvard University Press, 2019)

272 pages




Description

It is hard to overestimate the influence of John Rawls on political philosophy and theory over the last half-century. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide, and he is one of the few philosophers whose work is known in the corridors of power as well as in the halls of academe. Rawls is most famous for the development of his view of “justice as fairness,” articulated most forcefully in his best-known work, A Theory of Justice. In it he develops a liberalism focused on improving the fate of the least advantaged, and attempts to demonstrate that, despite our differences, agreement on basic political institutions is both possible and achievable.

Critics have maintained that Rawls’s view is unrealistic and ultimately undemocratic. In this incisive new intellectual biography, Andrius Gališanka argues that in misunderstanding the origins and development of Rawls’s central argument, previous narratives fail to explain the novelty of his philosophical approach and so misunderstand the political vision he made prevalent. Gališanka draws on newly available archives of Rawls’s unpublished essays and personal papers to clarify the justifications Rawls offered for his assumption of basic moral agreement. Gališanka’s intellectual-historical approach reveals a philosopher struggling toward humbler claims than critics allege.

Contents

Introduction

1. Protestant Beginnings
2. Drawing on Logical Positivism
3. Engagement with Wittgensteinian Philosophy
4. The Fair Games of Autonomous Persons
5. Practices of Reasoning
6. Natural Bases of Justice
7. No Shortcuts in Philosophy
8. Kantian Autonomy
9. A Theory of Justice

Epilogue

Appendix A: John Rawls: Courses Taken and Taught
Appendix B: John Rawls: Publications


Andrius Gališanka is an Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University. He is co-editor (with Mark Bevir) of "Wittgenstein and Normative Inquiry" (Brill, 2016).

See his dissertation: "The Path to A Theory of Justice" (pdf).

See also two papers by Gališanka:

**"John Rawls in Historical Context" (History of Political Thought vol. 33 No. 4, 2012)

**"Just Society as a Fair Game: John Rawls and Game Theory in the 1950s" (Journal of the History of Ideas, vol. 78. No. 2, 2017)

100th anniversary of sociology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt

In April 1919, the first Chair of Sociology was established at a German university: Franz Oppenheimer was appointed professor of sociology and economics at the Goethe University in Frankfurt. Together with the Institute for Social Research, which was founded in 1923, the sociological research at the Goethe University has had a decisive influence on the national and international research agenda. 

A jubilee celebration will take place at the Goethe University on November 12, 2019. It will include commemorative lectures by Jürgen Habermas and Saskia Sassen.

More information here.

New Book: Reconciliation and Reification

Reconciliation and Reification
Freedom's Semblance and Actuality from Hegel to Contemporary Critical Theory

by Todd Hedrick

(Oxford University Press, 2019)

297 pages



Description

The critical theory tradition has, since its inception, sought to distinguish its perspective on society by maintaining that persons have a deep-seated interest in the free development of their personality - an interest that can only be realized in and through the rational organization of society, but which is systematically stymied by existing society. And yet tradition has struggled to specify this emancipatory interest in a way that is neither excessively utopian nor accommodating to existing society. Despite the fact that Hegel's concept of reconciliation is normally thought to run aground on the latter horn of this dilemma, this book argues that reconciliation is the best available conceptualization of emancipatory interest. Todd Hedrick presents Hegel's idea of freedom as something actualized in individuals' lives through their reconciliation with how society shapes their roles, prospects, and sense of self; it presents reconciliation as less a matter of philosophical cognition, and more of inclusion in a responsive, transparent political process. Hedrick further introduces the concept of reification, which - through its development in Marx and Lukács, through Horkheimer and Adorno - substantiates an increasingly cogent critique of reconciliation as something unachievable within the framework of modern society, as social forces that shape our identities and life prospects come to appear natural, as part of the way things just are. 
Giving equal weight to psychoanalysis and legal theory, this work critically appraises the writings of Rawls, Honneth, and Habermas as efforts to spell out a reconciliation more democratic and inclusive than Hegel's, yet still sensitive to the reifying effects of legal systems that have become autonomous and anonymous.

Contents [preview]

Introduction

1. Reconciling Individuality and Sociality in Hegel's Philosophy of Right
2. Totality Fractured, Reconciliation Deferred: From Marx to Lukács, to Horkheimer and Adorno
3. Rawls' Liberal Right Hegelianism
4. Actualizing Social Freedom: Normative Reconstruction and Psychoanalysis in Honneth
5. Reification and Reconciliation in Habermas' Theory of Law and Democracy

Concluding Remarks


Todd Hedrick is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University. He is the author of "Rawls and Habermas: Reason, Pluralism, and the Claims of Political Philosophy" (Stanford University Press, 2010). 

See also three related papers by Todd Hedrick:

* "Democratic Constitutionalism as Mediation: The Decline and Recovery of an Idea in Critical Social Theory" (2012).
* "Reifying and Reconciling Class Conflict: From Hegel’s Estates to Habermas’ Interchange Roles" (2013).
* "Reification In and Through Law: Elements of a Theory in Marx, Lukács, and Honneth" (2014).

Upcoming books on Jürgen Habermas

The Cambridge Habermas Lexicon

AMY ALLEN & EDUARDO MENDIETA (eds.)
(Cambridge University Press, May 2019) 

[Table of Contents]








Der junge Habermas. Eine ideengeschichtliche Untersuchung seines frühen Denkens 1952–1962

ROMAN YOS
(Suhrkamp Verlag, June 2019)








Habermas global. Wirkungsgeschichte eines Werks

LUCA CORCHIA, STEFAN MÜLLER-DOOHM & WILLIAM OUTHWAITE (eds.)
(Suhrkamp Verlag, June 2019)

Habermas und die Religion [extended 2nd edition]

KLAUS VIERTBAUER & FRANZ GRUBER (eds.)
(Wissenschaftlichen Buchgesellschaft WBG, May 2019)









Die Rahmung des Hintergrunds. Die Debatten Derrida-Searle und Derrida-Habermas

PHILIP FREYTAG
(Vittorio Klostermann, forthcoming) 

[Table of Contents]

Diskurstheoretische Glaubensverantwortung. Konturen einer religiösen Epistemologie in Auseinandersetzung mit Jürgen Habermas

MARTIN BREUL
(Verlag Friedrich Pustet, January 2019)

Habermas and Politics: A Critical Introduction

MATHESON RUSSELL
(Edinburgh University Press, May 2019)

                             Habermas and Feminism

                            TAINE DUNCAN
                            (Palgrave MacMillan, February 2019)

A Feminist Political Liberalism

Equal Citizenship and Public Reason
A Feminist Political Liberalism

by Christie Hartley & Lori Watson

(Oxford University Press, 2018)





Description

This book is a defense of political liberalism as a feminist liberalism. The first half of the book develops and defends a novel interpretation of political liberalism. It is argued that political liberals should accept a restrictive account of public reason and that political liberals' account of public justification is superior to the leading alternative, the convergence account of public justification. The view is defended from the charge that such a restrictive account of public reason will unduly threaten or undermine the integrity of some religiously oriented citizens and an account of when political liberals can recognize exemptions, including religious exemptions, from generally applicable laws is offered. In the second half of the book, it is argued that political liberalism's core commitments restrict all reasonable conceptions of justice to those that secure genuine, substantive equality for women and other marginalized groups. Here it is demonstrated how public reason arguments can be used to support law and policy needed to address historical sites of women's subordination in order to advance equality; prostitution, the gendered division of labor and marriage, in particular, are considered.

Contents [preview]

Introduction

Part One: Equal Citizenship and Public Reason

1. The Role of Ideal Theory
2. The Moral Foundation of Public Justification and Public Reason
3. Exclusive Public Reason
4. Integrity and the Case for Restraint [paper]
5. Religious Exemptions

Part Two: Feminist Political Liberalism

6. Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible? [paper, 2010]
7. Prostitution and Public Reason [paper, 2007]
8. Social Norms, Choice and Work
9. Marriage [lecture, 2016]

Conclusion


Christie Hartley is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgia State University.

Lori Watson is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of San Diego.

Three related papers by the authors:

* Christie Hartley & Lori Watson - "Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible?" (2010).

* Lori Watson - "Toward a Feminist Theory of Justice: Political liberalism and Feminist Method" (2010).

* Christie Hartley & Lori Watson - "Integrity and the Case for Restraint" (2015). 

A video of Christie Hartley's lecture on "Feminism, Political Liberalism, and Marriage", March 10, 2016 at the Loyola University.

See also:

*Ruth Abbey (ed.) - Feminist Interpretations of John Rawls (Penn State University Press, 2013). Preview here. Abbey's introduction here. A review here and here.

New Perspectives on Distributive Justice

New Perspectives on Distributive Justice
Deep Disagreements, Pluralism, and the Problem of Consensus

Ed. by Manuel Knoll, Stephen Snyder & Nurdane Şimsek

(De Gruyter, 2018), 564 pages





Contents

Introduction: Two Opposing Conceptions of Distributive Justice - Manuel Knoll, Stephen Snyder & Nurdane Şimşek

Part I. Deep Disagreements

1. Deep Disagreements on Social and Political Justice: Their Meta-Ethical Relevance and the Need for a New Research Perspective - Manuel Knoll
2. Are There Irreconcilable Conceptions of Justice? Critical Remarks on Isaiah Berlin - Ulrich Steinvorth
3. Equality beyond Liberal Egalitarianism: Walzer’s Contribution to the Theory of Justice - Michael Haus
4. Stuart Hampshire and the Case for Procedural Justice - Giovanni Giorgini
5. Public Reason in Circumstances of Pluralism - Bertjan Wolthuis 
6. Does Rawls’s First Principle of Justice Allow for Consensus? A Note - Manuel Knoll & Nurdane Şimşek

Part II. Ancient Perspectives and Critiques of the Centrality of Justice

7. Aristotle on Natural Right - Francisco L. Lisi 
8. What Is “Just in Distribution” in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and Politics – Too Much Justice,  Too Little Right - Eckart Schütrumpf 
9. Justice in Ethics and Political Philosophy: A Fundamental Critique - Christoph Horn 
10. Justicitis - Chandran Kukathas 

Part III. The Problem of Consensus

11. Rawls on Overlapping Disagreement and the Problem of Reconciliation [abstract] - Alberto L. Siani 
12. Public Reason, Compromise within Consensus, and Legitimacy [abstract] - Chong-Ming Lim 
13. From Consensus to Modus Vivendi? Pluralistic Approaches to the Challenge of Moral Diversity and Conflict [abstract] - Ulrike Spohn
14. What Bonds Citizens in a Pluralistic Democracy? Probing Mouffe’s Notion of a Conflictual Consensus - Manon Westphal
15. Citizenship, Community, and the Rule of Law: With or Without Consensus? [draft] - Michał Rupniewski 
16. Political Liberalism: The Burdens of Judgement and Moral Psychology - Peter Caven

Part IV. Expanding the Perspective on Obligations

17. John Rawls and Claims of Climate Justice: Tensions and Prospects [abstract] - Angela Kallhoff 
18. Assistance, Emergency Relief and the Duty Not to Harm: Rawls’ and Cosmopolitan Approaches to Distributive Justice Combined [abstract] - Annette Förster 
19. Global Collective Obligations, Just International Institutions and Pluralism - Bill Wringe
20. Intergenerational Justice in the Age of Genetic Manipulation - Stephen Snyder 

Part V. Diversifying the Perspective

21. The Contours of Toleration: A Relational Account [draft] - Kok-Chor Tan 
22. Constructing Public Distributive Justice: On the Method of Functionalist Moral Theory - Chad van Schoelandt & Gerald Gaus
23. Respect as an Object of Equal Distribution? Opacity, Individual Recognition and Second-Personal Authority [draft] - Elena Irrera
24. Responsibility and Justice: Beyond Moral Egalitarianism and Rational Consensus - Maria Dimitrova
25. Habermas’s and Rawls’s Postsecular Modesty [abstract] - Tom Bailey

Part VI. The Difference Principle

26. A Defense of the Difference Principle beyond Rawls [abstract] - Peter Koller
27. Marxist Critiques of the Difference Principle - Aysel Demir

Part VII. The Economic Perspective: Adam Smith

28. Justice, Equity, and Distribution: Adam Smith’s Answer to John Rawls’s Difference Principle - Jeffrey Young
29. Statism and Distributive Injustice in Adam Smith - Barry Stocker


The book is based on papers presented at a conference on "Pluralism and Conflict: Distributive Justice Beyond Rawls and Consensus" in Istanbul June 2013.

Review of Samuel Freeman's "Liberalism and Distributive Justice"

A review of Samuel Freeman's "Liberalism and Distributive Justice" (Oxford University Press, 2018):

"Liberalism and Distributive Justice"

by Lisa Herzog, Technical University of Munich

Excerpts

"This is a collection of essays most of which have been published before, between 2001 and 2018. They all deal with John Rawls' political philosophy, defending it against various criticisms and what Freeman takes to be misinterpretations. The essays are of admirable clarity, arguing for their positions in meticulous detail. For those interested in a comprehensive overview of Freeman's understanding of Rawlsian justice, the collection is likely to be an extremely valuable resource, not least for teaching." (.....)

"Reading these essays alongside each other offers an opportunity to reflect on their coherence, i.e. on the relation between the various dimensions of Rawls' oeuvre that Freeman covers. The different parts, e.g. the rejection of classical liberalism with its connection to utilitarianism (chap. 1) and the rejection of welfare state capitalism (e.g. 146-7), or the idea of democratic and economic reciprocity (chaps. 4 and 7) and the ideal of a society of free and equal persons (e.g. 47-50) support each other; together they form an impressive edifice of ideas."

New interview with Habermas - by Aubert and Kervégan

The French journal "Le Philosophoire" (no. 50, 2018/2) contains an interview with Jürgen Habermas, conducted by Isabelle Aubert and Jean-François Kervégan - the editors of "Dialogues avec Jürgen Habermas" (CNRS Editions, 2018):

“Entretien avec Jürgen Habermas” (pp. 33-52)

The topics are: The history of philosophy, the critical theory of the Frankfurt School (Marcuse, Neumann, and Kirchheimer), law and democracy, feminist theorists, ethnocentrism, religion, migration, and the European Union.

Excerpts:

On fundamentalism as ideology

Aubert & Kervégan: Dans les années 1980, vous avez soutenu que le terme d’idéologie est un macro-concept qui a perdu sa pertinence théorique et qui ne correspond plus à une réalité sociologique dans le cadre de sociétés pluralistes et fonctionnellement complexes. Pour des raisons sociologiques, et aussi sans doute parce que l’usage de ce vocabulaire a été discrédité par le recours massif que les versions les plus trivialisées du marxisme ont eu à lui, vous justifiez l’emploi de la notion de «communication systématiquement déformée» plutôt que celle d’idéologie. (.....). Le renouveau des fondamentalismes religieux, et le renforcement de courants intégristes dans les religions monothéistes (catholicisme, protestantisme, judaïsme, Islam), ne peuvent-ils pas s’interpréter en termes d’idéologie?

Habermas: C’est une suggestion intéressante. Marx lui-même, en procédant à une critique de l’idéologie, pouvait encore déduire directement les idées de la gauche, des libéraux et des conservateurs, correspondant aux différents camps que reflétait depuis 1789 la distribution des sièges au Parlement, des positions sociales des classes et de leurs intérêts. Ces rapports de classes transparents n’existent plus dans nos sociétés complexes. Mais si, comme vous le suggérez, on comprend les mouvements fondamentalistes actuels comme des phénomènes modernes et si on les ramène en dernière instance au déracinement des positions sociales sous la contrainte de la modernisation capitaliste, alors, en de tels cas, l’existence d’un lien clair entre visions du monde et positions sociales suggère de conserver le concept d’idéologie. La même chose vaut pour bien des arguments néo-libéraux qui adoptent la vêture d’un langage scientifique.

On migration and asylum policy

Aubert & Kervégan: (.....) En 2015, la crise des réfugiés en Europe a interpellé l’opinion publique. Depuis cette date, la question migratoire est l’une des questions sociales et politiques les plus cruciales au niveau européen. D’un côté, cette situation renforce les tensions sociales en alimentant des mouvements d’extrême droite nationaliste (comme l’illustrent les manifestations à Chemnitz très récemment). D’un autre côté, on a l’impression que la tendance à fermer les frontières de l’UE met celle-ci, et les pays membres, en porte-en-faux avec les principes universels et humanistes de la Charte européenne des droits fondamentaux (dignité, liberté, égalité, solidarité).

Habermas: Oui, je trouve honteux le caractère glacial des récentes décisions en matière de politique du droit d’asile, eu égard au fait historique que les flux de réfugiés en provenance du Sud et du Proche-Orient sont aussi la conséquence de nos propres fautes, celles d’une décolonisation ratée. Pouvons-nous encore nous regarder dans le miroir sans rougir au vu des tragédies qui se déroulent en Méditerranée et que nous laissons plus ou moins se produire aujourd’hui du fait de l’absence de volonté de coopérer dont fait preuve le noyau dur des États européens? Bien entendu, il ne nous est pas possible d’ouvrir tout simplement les portes à tous les réfugiés. Mais, à défaut d’une politique d’asile commune à tous les États européens, laquelle a jusqu’à présent échoué à cause de la mauvaise volonté des États à s’entendre sur une clé de répartition, il faudrait que nous modifiions radicalement, et en commun, notre politique à l’endroit des pays d’où proviennent les réfugiés, avant toute chose en ce qui regarde notre propre politique économique vis-à-vis de ces pays. Et, eu égard à la corruption et au délabrement des structures étatiques de ces pays, nous ne devrions pas simplement laisser ces pays se débrouiller.