Customer Reviews

The Future of Human Nature

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of Habermas' simpler books. It marks a major turn in his thought, however. He no longer wishes to exclude questions of the "good life" (teleology) from judgements of justice (deontology). He sees that morality must be grounded in a "species ethic" (ie: a naturalist, religious or metaphysical anthropology). This is significant as his previous work betrayed the sceptical approach to modern liberalism maintained by his predecessors in the Frankfurt School (esp. Adorno & Horkheimer). He know longer holds fast to Dworkin-esque neutrality. Nonetheless he still places the priority on deontology, a fact that makes his claims more tangible than, say, Charles Taylor's. An insightful, well presented and simple read.

Previous reviewers have complained that Habermas presents his ideas in a more complex way than necessary. I submit that those reviewers are correct that his ideas, as _they_ understand them, could have been presented more simply.

Habermas is writing to academics. Yes, you need to have some background knowledge to access his thought. If you think that he is being more complicated than necessary, you almost certainly just don't get it.

As the rest of Habermas's books, this one is an extremely difficult read. Unless you have previous knowledge of philosophical concepts, you will most likely not understand what Habermas is saying because he makes constant references to other philosophers, concepts and ideas. Rather than elaborating on them, he assumes that the reader already knows them. As well, I found that he takes rather simple concepts and makes them unnecessarily complex, as if to sound impressive. By the time you dig through all the semantic nonsense, you realize that his ideas are not exceptional and they could have been conveyed in a much simpler, straight-forward manner. This book is a complete waste of time since you will spend hours just trying to understand what he's attempting to say, thinking that you will discover something brilliant, only to be disappointed. My suggestion is to pick up a different book that is simpler to understand and where the author does not try to make his ideas sound impressive by using unnecessarily complicated language.

More drivel from the great man of Europe.