Böcker av Jurgen Habermas

This is the first volume of a ground-breaking new work by Jürgen Habermas on the history of philosophy.Here Habermas sets out the ideas informing his systematic account of the history of Western philosophy as a genealogy of postmetaphysical thinking. His account goes far beyond a vindication of the enduring relevance of philosophical reflection founded on communicative reason as a source of orientation in the modern world. He contrasts this conception in the opening chapter with prominent diagnoses of the supposed crisis of Enlightenment reason and culture that seek redemption in the affirmation of traditional religious authority (Schmitt), the timeless validity of Greek metaphysics (Strauss), a numinous conception of nature (Löwith), or a happening of being that speaks to us from beyond the mists of pre-Socratic thought (Heidegger).Habermas situates Western thought in relation to the traditions of thought founded in the major world views (Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism) that continue to shape contemporary culture and civilization. At the same time, he lays the groundwork for the analysis in the later volumes of the constitutive role played by the discourse on faith and knowledge in the development of Western philosophy which is the result of the unique symbiosis that Christianity entered into with Greek thought with the Christianization of the Roman Empire.Far from raising claims to exclusivity, completeness or closure, Habermas's account, published in English in three volumes, opens up new lines of research and reflection that will influence the humanities and social sciences for decades to come.

A new, expanded edition which includes an additional five interviews in which Habermas discusses such themes as the history and significance of the Frankfurt School, the social and political development of post-war Germany and the moral status of civil disobedience.

On the occasion of Habermas's 80th birthday, the German publisher Suhrkamp brought out five volumes of Habermas's work that spanned the full range his philosophical work, from the theory of rationality to the critique of metaphysics.

Over the past 25 years, Jurgen Habermas has presented what is arguably the most coherent and wide-ranging defence of the project of European unification and of parallel developments towards a politically integrated world society.