Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity

This collection of ten essays offers the first systematic assessment of Jürgen Habermas's "Philosophical Discourse of Modernity," a book that defended the rational potential of the modern age against the depiction of modernity as a spent epoch. The essays (of which four are newly commissioned, five were published in the journal "Praxis International," and one -- by Habermas -- first appeared in translation in "New Critique" ) are divided into two sections: "Critical Rejoinders" and "Thematic Reformulations." An opening essay by d'Entrè ves sets out the main issues and orients the debate between Habermas and the postmodernists by identifying two different senses of responsibility: a responsibility to act versus a responsibility to otherness (an openness to difference, dissonance, and ambiguity). These are linked with two alternative understandings of the primary function of language: action-orienting versus world-disclosing. This is a fruitful way of looking at the issues that Habermas has raised in his attempt to resurrect and complete the project of Enlightenment. Habermas's essay discusses the main themes of his book in the context of a critical engagement with neoconservative cultural and political trends. The main body of essays offer an interesting collection of points of view, for and against Habermas's position by philosophers, social scientists, intellectual historians, and literary critics.

SECTIONS CONTRIBUTORS: "Introduction," Maurizio Passerin d'Entrè ves. "Modernity versus Postmodernity," Jü rgen Habermas. Critical Rejoinders: Fred Dallmayr. Christopher Norris. David C. Hoy. James Schmidt. Joel Whitebook. ThematicReformulations: James Bohman. Diana Coole. Jay M. Bernstein. David Ingram

List of Contributors vii

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1
Maurizio Passerin d'Entreves

1 Modernity: An Unfinished Project 38
Jurgen Habermas

PART I CRITICAL REJOINDERS

2. The Discourse of Modernity: Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Habermas 59
Fred Dallmayr

3 Deconstruction, Postmodernism and Philosophy: Habermas on Derrida 97
Christopher Norris

4 Splitting the Difference: Haberma's Critique of Derrida 124
David Couzens Hoy

5 Habermas and Foucault 147
James Schmidt

6 Intersubjectivity and the Monadic Core of the Psyche: Hebermas and Castoriadis on the Unconscious 172
Joel Whitebook

PART II THEMATIC REFORMULATIONS

7 Two Versions of the Linguistic Turn: Habermas and Poststructuralism 197
James Bohman

8 Habermas and the Question of Alterity 221
Diana Coole

9 The Causality of Fate: Modernity and Modernism in Habermas 245
Jay M. Bernstein

10 The Subject of Justice in Postmodern Discourse: Aesthetic Judgement and Political Rationality 269
David Ingram

Index 303

Maurizio Passerin D'Entreves and Seyla Benhabib are the authors of Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity: Critical Essays on The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, published by Wiley.