Critical Theory : Current State and Future Prospects

The retirement of the distinguished philosopher Jürgen Habermas from his chair at the University of Frankfurt signalled an important caesura in the history of Critical Theory: the transition from the Habermasian project, to different forms of inquiry in the work of the next generation. This change-over happens at a time when it has become clear that Habermas's systematic exploration of communicative rationality has reached the point where both its achievements and its limitations had become evident. The essays collected in this volume address the problems connected with this transition, partly by returning to the insights of the first generation (Adorno and Benjamin), partly by focusing on questions raised by Habermas's work. Whatever the difference in the authors' positions, this collection gains its unity through their common interest in the significance and value of Critical Theory today and in its future as a philosophical project. CONTENTS Preface Section I: Introduction Chapter 1 From the Eclipse of Reason to Communicative Rationality and Beyond Section II: Adorno and Benjamin: Reemerging Questions of Epistemology, History, and Aesthetics Chapter 2 Is Experience Still in Crisis? Reflections on a Frankfurt School Lament Chapter 3 Mega Melancholia: Adorno’s Minima Moralia Chapter 4 Stumbling Into Modernity: Body and Soma in Adorno Chapter 5 Aesthetic Politics Today: Walter Benjamin and Post-Fordist Culture Section III: In the Wake of Jürgen Habermas: Communicative Reason, Morality, and History Chapter 6 Critique and Self-Reflection: The Problematization of Morality Chapter 7 Dialogical Rationality and the Critique of Absolute Autonomy Chapter 8 Civil Society in the Information Age: Beyond the Public Sphere Chapter 9 Between Rights and Hospitality: Cosmopolitan Democracy, Nation, and Cultural Identity Chapter 10 A Question of Grounding: Reconstruction and Strict Reflexion in Habermas and Apel Section IV: A Contemporary Challenge to Critical Theory: Systems Theory Chapter 11 Critical Theory and Systems Theory Chapter 12 Observations on Observations: Some Remarks on Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory Section V: Epilogue Chapter 13 Normativity and its Limits: Toward a Residual Ethics in Critical Theory Bibliography Index The retirement of the distinguished philosopher Jurgen Habermas from his chair at the University of Frankfurt signalled an important caesura in the history of Critical Theory: the transition from the Habermasian project, to different forms of inquiry in the work of the next generation. This change-over happens at a time when it has become clear that Habermas's systematic exploration of communicative rationality has reached the point where both its achievements and its limitations had become evident. The essays collected in this volume address the problems connected with this transition, partly by returning to the insights of the first generation (Adorno and Benjamin), partly by focusing on questions raised by Habermas's work. Whatever the difference in the authors' positions, this collection gains its unity through their common interest in the significance and value of Critical Theory today and in its future as a philosophical project.