The Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas

“For nearly three decades now, the intellectual community in Western countries has been under the spell of Jurgen Habermas’s prolific pen. Even when measured against the highest professional or academic standards, Habermas’s opus is a prodigious phenomenon virtually unparalleled in our time…. In this situation both initiates and novices must welcome an effort to present a coherent account or synopsis of Habermas’s sprawling theoretical edifice; the delight and gratitude is bound to be particularly strong where the effort is successful and even brilliantly executed–as in the case of Thomas McCarthy’s study.”–Fred R. Dallmayr, “Human Studies”
“McCarthy offers an account of Habermas’s ideas which is sensitive both to their systematic character and to the course of their development. It is a sympathetic presentation which is comprehensive and accurate….”–Julius Sensat, “Philosophical Review”
“Thomas McCarthy has written a remarkable and masterful study of Jurgen Habermas…. He exhibits a thorough mastery of all of Habermas’s writings, including unpublished manuscripts. He almost unfailingly strikes the right balance between sympathetic explication and critical distance…. On a number of critical issues McCarthy is far more cogent and perceptive about consequences and implications than Habermas himself.”–Richard J. Bernstein, “Review of Politics”

Thomas McCarthy is John Schaffer Professor in the Humanities at Northwestern University and the editor of the MIT Press series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought.

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