Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Ten best books on Habermas

Bringing forward from November 26, 2007 (see update)

Here is my (tentative list), any suggestions, counter lists etc. are most welcome (the books blow are not in any particular order).

1) The Critical Theory of Jurgen Habermas

2) Language and Reason

3) Habermas and Modernity

4) Communicative Action: Essays on Jürgen Habermas's The Theory of Communicative Action

5)Habermas: A Very Short Introduction [chapter 1 is available online here]

6)The Linguistic Turn in Hermeneutic Philosophy

7) Habermas a Critical Reader

8) The Recent Work of Jürgen Habermas: Reason, Justice and Modernity

9) Rick Roderick: Habermas and the Foundations of Critical Theory

10) Metacritique: The Philosophical Argument of Jürgen Habermas

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Two additional titles of note:

1) Philosophical Interventions in the Unfinished Project of Enlightenment

2) Jurgen Habermas: A Philosophical-Political Profile

Update: I am terribly sorry that I had left out one of the best books on Habermas.

Joseph Heath Communicative Action and Rational Choice - The MIT Press

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about R. Geuss, (1981) The Idea of a Critical Theory: Habermas and the Frankfurt School?

Ali Rizvi said...

Geuss's book can certainly be included in the 10 best books on Habermas, however, it's very similar in range and style to "Metacritique: The Philosophical Argument of Jürgen Habermas," which I would personally prefer on Geuss. My own assessment of Geuss's book is that it's more about Geuss's own position than about Habermas.

Anonymous said...

I suggest a new list: "Ten worst books on Habermas". Could be usefull for the beginners.

Ali Rizvi said...

This is a terrific suggestion Anon. I would certainly have benefited from such a list!! However, I wouldn't want to take risk of annoying Habermas scholars. Do you have any suggestions? My own experience though is that it’s best to read Habermas himself and ignore most of the secondary literature on him. It will make life much easier.

Anonymous said...

Ali, I´m a begginer, don´t want to spend my money in bad papers or bad books :).

(I'm sorry for my english, i'm learning )

Ali Rizvi said...

Hi ha, the best thing, in my opinion, is to read Habermas' own books. To acquire minimum background required to tackle Habermas' own books, read few good articles at the start. There is also some good material on net. For example, you can start with the article on Habermas in the Stanford Encyclopaedia which is available online free of charge.

 
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