1: A Public Intellectual Committed to Reason Habermas's Life From the Critique of Ideology to the Dialectic of Enlightenment Outline of Chapters2: Habermas's Defense of Psychoanalytic Social Science The Positivism Debate in German Social Science Modern Nihilism: The Crisis of Science and the Theory/ Practice Problem Knowledge and Human Interests A Critique of Knowledge and Human Interests3: The Linguistic Turn TCA and the Dialectic of Enlightenment Situating Habermas's Philosophy of Language Transcendental Philosophy of Language as Rational Reconstruction Universal Pragmatics and Formal Semantics Formal Pragmatics and Speech Act Theory Discourse Communicative and Strategic Speech Acts A Critique of Universal Pragmatics4: Knowledge and Truth Revisited Subject-Object Paradigms of Knowledge Internal Realism Reference and Meaning Knowledge and Evolution Moral Realism Is Formal Pragmatism a Defensible Alternative to Realism and Contextualism?5: Discourse Ethics Practical Reason: Delimiting the Domain of the Moral The Priority of the Right over the Good Modernity and Moral Development Deontological Moral Theory and Universalizability: Kant and Rawls Moral Cognitivism versus Moral Skepticism Moral Argumentation as Discourse Neo-Aristotelian Objections and the Abortion Controversy Justification and Application Discourse Ethics Applied: Genetic Testing and the Future of Human Nature Problems and Paradoxes Habermas's Ideal of Argumentation: A Final Assessment6: Law and Democracy: Part I: The Foundational Rights Modern Law and Morality: A Paradoxical Wedding of Facts and Norms Situating Habermas's Theory of Law and Democracy: Some Contemporary Debates The Sociological Genesis of Modern Law The System of Rights Negative and Positive Rights (Duties) Constitutional Foundations Human Rights: Subsistence as a Test Case for a Juridical Conception of Rights Final Thoughts on the Procedural Ideal of Deliberative Democracy7: Law and Democracy: Part II: Power and the Clash of Paradigms Democracy and the Powers of Government The Separation of Powers The Transmission of Communicative Power: From Public Sphere to Government Administration Discourse and Adjudication The Proceduralist Paradigm of Law and Democracy A Concluding Assessment8: Law and Democracy: Part III: Applying the Proceduralist Paradigm Separation of Church and State: The Public/ Private Distinction Gender Difference and the Law Multiculturalism Immigration9: Law and Democracy: Part IV: Social Complexity and a Critical Assessment Questioning the Proceduralist Paradigm Substantive Economic Justice and Workplace Democracy The Technological Dimension of Democracy Revolution and Democracy10: Crisis and Pathology: The Future of Democracy in a Global Age Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy Social Pathologies and the Colonization of the Lifeworld Globalization: The New Challenge Cosmopolitan Democracy and Global Politics as a Response to Global Crisis Politics and the Rule of Law in International Relations The Constitutionalization of International Relations The Limits of Democratization: A Critical Assessment11: Postsecular Postscript: Modernity and Its Discontents Marx on the Evolution of Modern Society Weber on Modernization and the Problem of Meaning Secularization and the Rationalization of the Lifeworld Between Past and Future: Art, Religion, and the Dialectic of Enlightenment RevisitedAppendix A: Explaining Action Appendix B: Understanding Action Appendix C: Habermas and Brandom Appendix D: Developmental Psychology Appendix E: Rational Choice Theory Appendix F: Systems TheoryIndex

David Ingram has provided us with what is unquestionably the most comprehensive introduction to one of the most demanding systems of thought, without sacrificing critical distance.... The book not only explains Habermas but places him on the map of modern philosophy. The book is a versatile toolbox, which will make it a must for anyone aiming to teach Habermas or the transformations of Critical Theory in the last decades. Above all, however, it is also a substantive contribution to the tradition to which Habermas belongs, for it is a critique of reason by way of an immanent critique of communicative rationality itself.

This is a marvelous resource for anyone interested in better understanding the difficult and voluminous work of Jürgen Habermas. It is clearly written, comprehensive, and fair-minded in its exegesis; moreover, it provides at the same time a highly intelligent, critical analysis of central themes in central themes in the writings of Habermas.