The Cambridge Companion to Habermas (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) [Paperback]

Stephen K. White (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 1995 | ISBN-10: 052144666X | ISBN-13: 978-0521446662

This volume examines the historical and intellectual contexts out of which Habermas' work emerged, and offers an overview of his main ideas, including those in his most recent publication. Among the topics discussed are: his relationship to Marx and the Frankfurt School of critical theory, his unique contributions to the philosophy of social sciences, the concept of "communicative ethics," and the critique of postmodernism. Particular attention is paid to Habermas' recent work on democratic theory and the constitutional state.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...an excellent tool for advanced students of Habermas, and it raises crucial questions that are relevant for anyone concerned with the theoretical and practical problems of democracy....The book clearly shows not only the profound contributions Habermas makes to democratic theory, but also some serious problems in his work and the extent to which his massive theoretical apparatus still needs to be discussed in relation to concrete social and political issues." American Political Science Review

"...White has compiled here an excellent set of essays, especially on Habermas's most recent reflections on discource theory." Choice

"...a good introduction to the impact of Habermas' theories of democracy, law, social criticism, and ethics for those who are not familiar with Habermas' work, his dense writing style, and the three-century tradition of continental thought upon which he relies....with its select bibliography and straightforward, non-technical articles, this volume should provide a possible point of entry to the variety of English-language debates surrounding Habermas' theories of politics and morality." Christopher F. Zurn, Canadian Philosophical Review

"This is a wonderful collection." David A. Freeman, The European Studies Journal

Book Description

In examining the historical and intellectual contexts out of which Habermas' work emerged, this volume offers an overview of his main ideas, including his relationship to Marx and the Frankfurt School of critical theory, as well as his unique contributions to the philosophy of social science.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 28, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052144666X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521446662
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Introduction without Bowdlerization, August 9, 2004

By 

socraticfury "kchen28" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Habermas (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

The previous reviewer, Mr. Craig Chalquist, complains that despite having read "a lot of philosophy," he found this book tough going. One can certainly sympathize with him; Habermas is not easy to read, and people writing on Habermas tend not to be easy to read. I believe that Mr. Chalquist is right in saying that Habermasian prose tends to drive students away from philosophy and critical theory. But the denseness and opacity of Teutonic philosophical language is an old story; Marx had already shuddered at the "mostrous melodies" of Hegel. Mr. Chalquist does not proceed to ask if students who are turned off by dense prose do not deserve to be driven out of philosophy. Must philosophy be clothed in the language of the marketplace? Hegel could already speak of the old prejudice that, whereas everyone realizes it takes training and a certain native talent to be a great craftsman or a great mathematician, everyone thinks she is ready to philosophize.

Let us take the pasage cited by Mr. Chalquist. From his review, I had the impression that the author simply dropped that sentence out of the blue. But when I discovered the relevant passage on page 274, I found it situated within a discussion that begins on the previous page regarding the "tension between the comprehensible and the incomprehensible," a tension that the authors claim is embodied most clearly in Kant's Critique of Judgment. Anybody with a passing familiarity with Kant will recognize immediately how apropos this claim is. And those who are unfamiliar with Kant--well, is it not the duty of a good introduction to lead readers to the great works that have set the agenda for later philosophers and thinkers? I know some readers do not believe so. They believe that the task of a good introduction is to present profound insights in easily digestible form so that they can be spared hard thinking: fortune cookie wisdom, wisdom for dummies. I wonder if these readers know what the word "bowdlerize" means. As far as I am concerned, Stanley Rosen has articulated what ought to be the guiding principle for anyone who undertakes the daunting and noble task of writing an introductory work of philosophy: An oversimplified account is no account at all.

By that standard, this Companion does a decent, and at times even a good, job. The authors generally display a great deal of familiarity with Habermas and do a nice job of presenting his position concisely and without too much distortion, though obviously some glossing over of subtleties is inescapable in the format of the short essay. The Strong and Sposito chapter, from which Mr. Chalquist lifted his example of bad writing, is actually one of the best chapters in the book. I describe it briefly to show up the virtues of this collection. The chapter points out that according to Habermas, rationality is a "moral social concept" (263), that rationality is tied to the fact that we speak to one another (in neo-Kantian terms, that human beings are situated in the space of reasons), and that this speaking to one another implies a "we." But the act of speaking, precisely as an act, is an embodied act--which is to say, when we speak, we do not speak to everyone all at once, if only because we do not all share the same language. This means that the "we" is at least immediately circumscribed by the "others" to whom we are not speaking. Given the link between reason and the "we," the "other" to the "we" is thus at the same time the "other" of reason. And from here the authors build their critique of Habermas.

I should perhaps add that I rate this book solely on the basis of its worth as an initial guide to Habermas. I do not rate it on the basis of its intrinsic philosophical worth. I am not a sympathizer of Habermas' philosophical project. I believe that what is right about it has almost all been said, and said better, by others, especially by Kant and Hegel, and that what is new about it is almost all wrong. The contributors to this volume, in contrast, are all sympathetic critics, to varying degrees. They disagree with Habermas at the margins, but not at the core. I could put this simply by saying that they are all moderns for whom their modernity is not a problem.

26 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars turgid, October 26, 2001

By 

Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Habermas (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

The back of the book says this series is "a reference work for students and non-specialists." Don't you believe it.

I've read a lot of philosophy, but even I had a hard time getting through this book, and I didn't learn much about Habermas. I do not accept the justification that complex philosophical matters require bad writing. Prose loaded with twenty-cent words and pompous jargon is not only a poor start for the struggling student, but an unwitting comment on the writer's capacity for the kind of pompous intellectualizing that drives students and seekers OUT of philosophy.

With the exception of essayists Nancy Love and Simone Chambers, most of the contributors to this troublesome tome need to go back to Strunk and White, William Zinsser, and basic English composition to learn how NOT to write sentences like this one:

"The insight of the metacritique of pure reason is that the comprehensiveness of a system of reason cannot be predicated on comprehensiveness itself, and that a certain amount of incomprehensibility is necessary to make 'systematic' or 'complete comprehension' possible."

Setting aside the question of how many times can we work "compre-" into an incomprehensible phrasing, in plain English it means--I think--that a thought system's clarity doesn't guarantee the scope of its applicability. Why the hell not say so, and in a way that doesn't unconsciously make an irony of itself?

One expects this sort of thing in a journal, but for beginners it's useless and discouraging.