Habermas Reading Group

This is the homepage for the Jürgen Habermas Reading Group 2006-7, based in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Essex, UK. Links are given to the catalogue reference at the Sloman Library. The group meets in the graduate study room on the Philosophy Department on Tuesday evenings at 5pm, commencing October 2006.

Reading List

Week 4: The Theory of Communicative Action
(Introduction)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.1 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. Reading: Introduction by Thomas McCarthy. pp.vii – xl Rasmussen, D. M. Reading Habermas Oxford: Blackwell, 1990. Chapters 2 & 3

Week 5: Theory of Communicative Action 1
(Understanding and Acting in the World)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.1 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. pp.1-74

Week 6: Theory of Communicative Action 1
(Understanding Meaning in Social Science)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.1 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. p.75-142

Week 7: Theory of Communicative Action 1
(Weber’s Critique of Occidental Rationalism)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.1 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. pp.143-215

Week 8: Theory of Communicative Action 1
(Protestant Ethics and the Rationalisation of Law)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.1 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. pp.216-272

Week 9: Theory of Communicative Action 1
(Social Action, Purposive Activity and Communication)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.1 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. pp.273-338

Week 10: Theory of Communicative Action 1
(Rationalisation as Reification)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.1 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. pp.339-365

Week 11: Theory of Communicative Action 1
(Critique of Instrumental Reason)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.1 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984. pp.366-403

- Christmas Vacation -

Week 16: The Theory of Communicative Action 2
(Mead and Durkheim)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.2 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987. pp.1-112

Week 17: Theory of Communicative Action 2
(System and Lifeworld)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.2 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987. pp.113-198 McCarthy, T. “Complexity and Democracy: The Seducements of Systems Theory” in Ideals and Illusions – On Reconstruction and Deconstruction in Contemporary Critical Theory Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990 pp. 152-180

Week 18: Theory of Communicative Action 2
(Constructing a Theory of Society)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.2 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987. pp.199-300

Week 19: Theory of Communicative Action 2
(A Critical Theory of Society)

Habermas, J. Theory of Communicative Action Vol.2 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987. pp.301-404

See especially Habermas, J. “The Tasks of a Critical Theory of Society” in Theory of Communicative Action Vol. 2 Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987. pp. 374 – 404 Also available in Outhwaite, W (ed.) The Habermas Reader Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996 pp.309-337

Week 20: Critique of Modernity

Habermas, J. The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987 Chapters 5, 11 & 12

Week 21: Discourse Ethics

Habermas, J. “Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification” in Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990 pp. 43-115. Also published in Benhabib & Dallmayr (eds.) The Communicative Ethics Controversy Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990

Habermas, J. “Does Hegel’s critique of Kant apply to Discourse Ethics?” in in Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990 pp. 195-215 Heath, J. “The Problem of Foundationalism in Habermas’s Discourse Ethics” Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1995 pp. 77-100

Week 22: Theory of Law

Habermas, J. Between Facts and Norms Cambridge : Polity Press, 1996 (selections tbc.)

Habermas, J. “Law and Morality” in The Tanner Lectures on Human Values VIII Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1988. Lectures 1 & 2

Scheuerman, W. E. “Between radicalism and resignation: democratic theory in Habermas’s Between Facts and Norms” in Dews, P. (ed.) Habermas: A Critical Reader Oxford: Blackwell, 1999 pp.153-177

Week 23: Political Theory Habermas, J. The Inclusion of the Other Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998 (selections tbc.)

Background and General Reading

Bernstein, J. M. Recovering Ethical Life: Jürgen Habermas and the Future of Critical Theory London and New York: Routledge, 1995

Braaten, J. Habermas’s Critical Theory of Society Albany, SUNY Press, 1991

Dews, P. (ed.) Habermas: A Critical Reader Oxford: Blackwell, 1999

Edgar, A. The Philosophy of Habermas Chesham: Acumen, 2005

Finlayson, J. G. Habermas: A Very Short Introduction O.U.P., Oxford, 2005

Geuss, R. The Idea of a Critical Theory: Habermas and the Frankfurt School Cambridge: CUP, 1981

McCarthy, T. The Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas London : Hutchinson, 1978

Outhwaite, W (ed.) The Habermas Reader Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996