Toward a Rational Society: Student Protest, Science, and Politics [Paperback]

Juergen Habermas (Author), Jeremy J. Shapiro (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1971 | ISBN-10: 0807041777 | ISBN-13: 978-0807041772 | Edition: 1st Published as Beacon Ppbk in 1971

Student Protest, Science, and Politics

Translated by Jeremy J. Shapiro

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Jurgen Habermas is a German sociologist who studied at the universities of Gottingen, Zurich, and Bonn. He taught at Frankfurt am Main, Marburg, and Heidelberg before becoming professor of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. His works, widely translated, have made him one of the most influential social theorists of our time. Habermas is considered by some to be an intellectual heir to Max Weber and what has been called the Frankfurt School. His work has centered mainly on the role of communication and technology in changing patterns of social relations, human activity, and values. An outspoken advocate of the Enlightenment and a champion of reason, he has also cautioned that the technical rationality associated with modern capitalism often functions as ideology and may stand in the way of human progress. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; 1st Published as Beacon Ppbk in 1971 edition (August 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807041777
• ISBN-13: 978-0807041772
• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 5.5 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #756,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a seriously great book, July 14, 2005

By 

Jon M. Willis (Bendigo, Victoria, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toward a rational society: Student protest, science and politics; (Hardcover)

For a long time, Towards a Rational Society topped my list of Desert Island Books, particularly the third chapter, Science and Technology as Rationality. As a social scientist, it encapsulated for me the whole problem with positivist science approaches, as well as making clear the fundamental distinction between purposive rationality and other less instrusive and more community-developing forms of communicative action. It is often seen as ironic that Habermas, a man with a cleft palate who writes in such a turgid and convoluted way, should be a premier exponent of the theory of communication, systemativally distorted or otherwise. Here is a book that shows why and how he is a genius, and in the clearest and most straightforward way. It also clearly shows his debts to Weber and Marx and the earlier critical theorists, while moving substantially on from all of them.