The Habermas Reader

This is a comprehensive introduction to, and selection from, Jurgen Habermas´s writings from the early 1960s to the present. The book is divided into seven sections, covering the principal areas of Habermas´s work. Each section includes an introduction and a selection of substantial extracts from relevant books.In the general introduction, Outhwaite outlines the central themes of Habermas´s work and analyzes the development of his views over the years. Subsequent sections are organized thematically and chronologically, so that the book should be easy to use by students.There are extracts from all of Habermas´s major works, including: his early work on the public sphere and on science and technology; his writings on the methodology and epistemology of the social sciences; his work on evolution and legitimation; his theory of communication and discourse ethics; his analysis of modernity and his critique of postmodernism; and his most recent work on law and the state.By bringing these wide-ranging contributions together in a single volume, this reader should be useful as a teaching text.It should also be of interest to anyone who wishes to gain an overview of the work of one of the most important social thinkers of the 20th century.
Contents: Rationality and the public sphere; epistomology and methodology; language and communication; ethics and law; evolution and legitimation; the theory of modernity; critical social theory today.