The Philosophy of Jürgen Habermas:

The Philosophy of Jürgen Habermas
A Critical Introduction
Uwe Steinhoff

"Jürgen Habermas seeks to defend the Enlightenment and with it an <"emphatical>", <"uncurtailed>" conception of reason against the post-modern critique of reason on the one hand, and against so-called scientism (which would include critical rationalism and the greater part of analytical philosophy) on the other. His objection to the former is that it is self-contradictory and politically defeatist; his objection to the latter is that, thanks to a standard of rationality derived from the natural sciences or from Weber's concept of purposive rationality, it leaves normative questions to irrational decisions. Habermas wants to offer an alternative, trying to develop a theory of communicative action that can clarify the normative foundations of a critical theory of society as well as provide a fruitful theoretical framework for empirical social research.

This study is a comprehensive and detailed analysis and sustained critique of Habermas' philosophical system since his pragmatist turn in the seventies. It clearly and precisely depicts Habermas' long chain of arguments leading from an analysis of speech acts to a discourse theory of law and the democratic constitutional state. Along the way the study examines, among other things, Habermas' theory of communicative action, transcendental and universal pragmatics and the argument from <"performative contradictions>", discourse ethics, the consensus theory of truth, Habermas' ideas on developmental psychology, communicative pathologies and social evolution, his theory of social order, the analysis of the tensions between system and lifeworld, his theory of modernity, and his theory of deliberative democracy. For all Habermas students this study will prove indispensable."

Sample chapter

Habermas honours Honneth on his 60th birthday

Arbeit, Liebe, Anerkennung


Thanks to Thomas for the link.

A review of The Future ofHuman Nature. byJ¨urgen Habermas

here (scroll down to read)

Critical Theory of World Risk Society: A Cosmopolitan Vision

Critical Theory of World Risk Society:
A Cosmopolitan Vision
Ulrich Beck

A critical theory of world risk society must address at least three questions: (1) What is the basis of the critique? What is “critical” about this critical theory? (The question of the normative horizon of the world risk society) (2)What are the key theses and core arguments of this theory? Is it an empirical theory of society with critical intent? (3) To what extent does this theory break with the automatisms of modernization and globalization which have taken on a life of their own and rediscover the openness of human action to the future at the beginning of the 21st century political perspectives, cosmopolitan alternatives?

free download from here

Stanford Encyclopedia entry on Max Horkheimer

here

Jürgen Habermans on Ralf Dahrendorf

German sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf died today at the age of 80. Jan Feddersen writes: "Dahrendorf was the first intellectual star of the fledging Bundesrepulik to seek and find acknowledgement abroad. He also studied in USA, received his first PhD in 1952 for a dissertation on the concept of justice in the writings of Karl Marx. In 1957 he obtained his 'habilitation' - recognition of the right to lecture in German universities - with the publication of 'Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society'. Jürgen Habermas, who celebrated his 80th birthday last week, and had been an admirer of Dahrendorf's since that time, as he admitted at Dahrendorf's birthday celebrations a few weeks ago, said: "With his constructive intellect that preferred to create clarity with idealised stylisations than to juggle with hermeneutics, Dahrendorg was remarkable for his powerful eloquence, his natural command of authority and his somewhat angular manner of speech. What singled him out from his peers was his ability to see off received ideas with avant-gardist aplomb."

from here

Habermas turns 80 today!

Happy birthday Professor Habermas!

Habermas turns 80 tomorrow!!

details here and here

Sentimentality, communicative action and the social self: Adam Smith meets Jürgen Habermas

Sentimentality, communicative action and the social self: Adam Smith meets Jürgen Habermas
David Wilson
Department of Economics, Finance and International Business, London Metropolitan University, 84 Moorgate, London EC2M 6SQ, UK, d.wilson@londonmet.ac.uk

William Dixon

Department of Economics, Finance and International Business, London Metropolitan University, 84 Moorgate, London EC2M 6SQ, UK

There is a long and tortuous history of misinterpreting Smithian social theory. After rehearsing that history we offer here a way of understanding Smith that, unlike much of recent revisionist Smith scholarship, does not further add to this confusion. Our proposal is to understand the relation between moral and economic behaviour in Smith as analogous to the way in which Habermas makes strategic (and normatively oriented) behaviour parasitic on a more basic communicative competence. Given this analogy, it is ironic that Habermas's own understanding of Smith's theory also leaves much to be desired.


Key Words: economics • Jürgen Habermas • morality • sentiment • Adam Smith



History of the Human Sciences, Vol. 22, No. 3, 75-99 (2009)

Towards Reconciling Two Heroes: Habermas and Hegel

Brandom's first major (?) piece on Habermas! Can be downloaded from here

Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Essays

Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Essays

Jürgen Habermas, Between Naturalism and Religion: Philosophical Essays, Ciaran Cronin (trans.), Polity Press, 2008, 361pp., $26.95 (pbk), ISBN 9780745638256.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Flynn, Fordham University

Habermas's central aim in this collection of essays is to articulate the appropriate relation between "postmetaphysical thinking" and science and religion. He takes up issues related to both the philosophical and the public use of reason, and makes interesting proposals regarding their interrelation. Habermas is clearly worried about the spread of naturalistic worldviews ("scientism") and religious fundamentalism, but he dismisses neither naturalism nor religion. Rather, he defends what he calls "soft naturalism," which embraces a non-reductionist account of human language and thought in which normativity and intersubjectivity are central. Regarding religion, Habermas maintains that philosophy has long been enriched by secular "translations" of religious ideas. Moreover, he views at least "modernized" religions as allies in the public sphere in combating the effects of uncontrolled capitalist modernization and the spread of reductionistic thinking.

full here

CFP reminder: Joint Society for European Philosophy and Forum for European Philosophy 2009

This is the third and final ‘call for papers’ for the 5th Annual Joint Conference of the Society for European Philosophy and the Forum for European Philosophy at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff; Wales, 27-29 August 2009.


Keynote speakers:

Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht)
Claire Colebrook (Penn State)
Leonard Lawlor (Penn State)
Christopher Norris (Cardiff)


The SEP-FEP Joint Conference offers faculty and graduate students the
opportunity to present papers in any area of European Philosophy.
Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted by 1 June 2009 to
Juliana Cardinale, either in electronic form to J.Cardinale@lse.ac.uk or
by mail to:

Forum for European Philosophy
Room J5, European Institute
Cowdray House, Portugal Street
London School of Economics, London, WC2A 2AE United Kingdom


There are also two open plenary sessions:

1. The Future of Hermeneutics (Chair: Nicholas Davey, Dundee) and

2. The Role of Imagery in Ontology and Thought (Chair: Clive Cazeaux,
UWIC).

In addition, proposals relating to Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project are
especially welcome. Cardiff is a city of arcades. A work of sound art
based on Cardiff's arcades has been commissioned to accompany the
conference.

If you would be interested in participating in any of these, please
contact Clive Cazeaux by 1 June 2009 at ccazeaux@uwic.ac.uk


A prize of £250 will be awarded to the best graduate paper, as judged by
members of the SEP and FEP Committees. Graduates who would like their
papers considered for the prize should email their papers (maximum 3,000
words) as Word 2003 attachments to Clive Cazeaux at ccazeaux@uwic.ac.uk
by 3 August 2009.


Deadline summary:
Paper abstracts by 1 June 2009 to J.Cardinale@lse.ac.uk
Graduate papers in full by 3 August 2009 to ccazeaux@uwic.ac.uk

Further details, including registration and accommodation, are available
on the conference website here

New blog on Habermas and Rawls

A new exciting blog by Thomas Gregersen! According to Thomas it will bring news on the political thoughts of Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls.The blog will mainly have comments on new books and articles, and information about conferences and other events.

It will be written in both English and German.

See here

The blog will be a supplement to his Habermas website


Its Habermas bibliography and lists on secondary literature will still be updated regularly.

Habermas' acceptance speech for Brunet Prize for Human Rights 2008

Jürgen Habermas received the International Brunet Prize for Human Rights 2008 at a ceremony on May 9, 2009, in Pamplona, Spain.

Read Habermas's acceptance speech (in German) here

The link courtesy of Thomas

Morality and Critical Theory: On the Normative Problem of Frankfurt School Social Criticism

Morality and Critical Theory: On the Normative Problem of Frankfurt School Social Criticism
James Gordon Finlayson

I. The Problem of Normative Foundations: Habermas's Original Criticism of Adorno and Horkheimer: In The Theory of Communicative Action, Jürgen Habermas writes:

From the beginning, critical theory labored over the difficulty of giving an account of its own normative foundations ...1

Call this Habermas's original objection to the problem of normative foundations. It has been hugely influential both in the interpretation and assessment of Frankfurt School critical theory and in the development of later variants of it. Nowadays it is a truth almost universally acknowledged that any critical social theory in possession of normative...

full here

Bibliography of the secondary literature on Habermas

Articles and books on Jürgen Habermas 1992-2009


A bibliography of the secondary literature 1992-2009 on Jürgen Habermas is now available here



The link and info courtesy of Thomas Gregersen

Habermas's Political Thought 1984-1996: A Historical Interpretation

In the latest issue of the journal "Modern Intellectual History" (April 2009) Matthew Specter has written a very interesting article on Habermas' s recent political thought:

The article is available here free


The link and info courtesy of Thomas Gregersen

Discourse, Power, and Subjectivation

DISCOURSE, POWER, AND SUBJECTIVATION: THE FOUCAULT/HABERMAS DEBATE RECONSIDERED

AMY ALLEN

Clarifying the Foucault—Habermas debate

Clarifying the Foucault—Habermas debate
Morality, ethics, and `normative foundations'
Matthew King

Atkinson Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada


Habermas charges that Foucault's work `cannot account for its normative foundations'. Responses to Habermas have consisted mostly of, on one hand, attempts to identify foundational normative assumptions implicit in Foucault's work, and, on the other hand, attempts to show that Foucault's work discredits the very idea of normative foundations. These attempts have suffered from a lack of clarity about Habermas' notion of normative foundations. In this article I clarify the terms of the debate by considering Habermas' critique of Foucault in light of his moral philosophy. I examine three representative responses to Habermas on Foucault's behalf, which attempt to identify normative foundations in Foucault's work, and I show why none of them meets Habermas' requirements. Finally, I argue that while Foucault's political judgments cannot have normative foundations, Foucault does adhere to the principles of Habermas' discourse ethics, and his doing so does not conflict with his genealogical approach.

Key Words: cryptonormativity • discourse ethics • Michel Foucault • foundations • Jürgen Habermas • truth

from here

Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory between Past and Fut

Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory between Past and Future
Nikolas Kompridis, Critique and Disclosure: Critical Theory between Past and Future, MIT Press, 2006, 333pp., $37.50 (hbk), ISBN 9780262112994.

Reviewed by Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame
==

The fate of reason today hangs in the balance. This is no small matter. Ever since its historical beginnings, reason or rationality has been the central focus and point of honor of Western modernity -- a focus enshrined in Descartes' cogito, Enlightenment rationalism, and Kantian (and neo-Kantian) critical philosophy. The result of this focus was an asymmetrical dichotomy: separated from the external world of "matter" (or nature), the cogito assumed the role of superior task master and overseer -- a role fueling the enterprise of modern science and technology. During the past century, the edifice of Western modernity has registered a trembling, due to both internal and external contestations. Subverting the modern asymmetry, a host of thinkers – with views ranging from American pragmatism to European life philosophy and phenomenology -- have endeavored to restore pre-cognitive "experience" (including sense perception and affect) to its rightful place. In the context of French "postmodernism," a prominent battle cry has been to dislodge "logocentrism" (the latter term often equated with anthropocentrism). In the ambiance of recent German philosophy, the battle lines have been clearly marked: pitting champions of modern rationalism, represented by Jürgen Habermas, against defenders of experiential "world disclosure," represented by Martin Heidegger. In his book, Nikolas Kompridis endeavors to shed new light on this controversy, with the aim not so much of bringing about a cease fire but of providing resources for arriving at better mutual understanding.

Kompridis does not exactly assume a position above the contestants (he repeatedly rejects the "view from nowhere"). As the book's subtitle indicates, his point of departure is "critical theory" as championed by the Frankfurt School, and his attempt is to nudge that theory beyond a certain rationalist orthodoxy in the direction of possible "future" horizons. While appreciating some of its merits -- such as the "linguistic turn" and the emphasis on "communicative" rationality -- Kompridis finds Habermas's reformulation of the Frankfurt program on the whole unhelpful and debilitating. In his words (p. 17): "For all there is to recommend it, Habermas's reformulation has produced a split between new and old critical theory so deep that the identity and future of critical theory are at risk." The main reason is that the "normative gain" deriving from the linguistic turn remains attached to narrow rationalist premises that have "needlessly devalued" the theory's potential. In Kompridis's view, Habermas's evolving thought exhibits a break or rupture (quite apart from the linguistic turn): namely, a move toward pure "theory" which happened soon after the publication of Knowledge and Human Interests. "That turn to theory," he writes (pp. 232-234), "refashioned the project of critical theory as a strenge Wissenschaft, less bound by or beholden to the historical and existential exigencies of modernity" -- thereby undermining modernity's intrinsic "relation to time." As a result of this refashioning, critical theory was catapulted in the direction of an abstractly rational universalism disdainful of cultural and practical modes of pluralism. The upshot was a growing "insensitivity to particularity," justifying the suspicion that the basic concepts of communicative rationality had from the start been "rigged in favor of the universal." But, the book adds sharply, "a provinciality-destroying reason is a meaning-destroying reason" and the latter is "a history-destroying reason."

Full here

Gordon Finlayson's Website and Blog

Here

:: Selection of Habermas’ works in 5 volumes

In June 2009 Suhrkamp Verlag will celebrate Jürgen Habermas’s 80th birthday by publishing a selection of Habermas’ works in 5 volumes – Philosophische Texte: Studienausgabe in fünf Bänden. Each volume will have a new introduction by Jürgen Habermas.

The 5 volumes are:
1. Sprachtheoretische Grundlegung der Soziologie
2. Diskurs- und Sprachtheorie
3. Diskursethik
4. Politische Theorie
5. Kritik der Vernunft

Suhrkamp Verlag:
”Am 18. Juni 2009 feiert der Philosoph und Soziologe Jürgen Habermas seinen 80. Geburtstag. Zu diesem Anlaß hat er eine systematische Auswahl von wichtigen Texten zusammengestellt, einige davon bislang unveröffentlicht, die den philosophischen Kern seines umfangreichen Werks freilegen. Jürgen Habermas hat zu jedem Band eine ausführliche Einleitung verfaßt, in der er die Grundzüge und Motive seines philosophischen Denkens zu Themen wie Sprache und Wahrheit, Vernunft und Moral, Recht und Demokratie umreißt, wie sie sich in Auseinandersetzung mit den Einzelwissenschaften herausgebildet haben. Die Bände, die auch einzeln erhältlich sind, können somit an die Stelle ungeschriebener philosophischer Monographien treten und bieten einen umfassenden Einblick in ein Denken, das die Geistesgeschichte der Gegenwart wie kaum ein zweites geprägt hat.”

1. Sprachtheoretische Grundlegung der Soziologie

Vorwort
Einleitung
1. Vorlesungen zu einer sprachtheoretischen Grundlegung der Soziologie
2. Erläuterungen zum Begriff des kommunikativen Handelns
3. Handlungen, Sprechakte, sprachlich vermittelte Interaktionen und Lebenswelt
4. Individuierung durch Vergesellschaftung. Zu G.H. Meads Theorie der Subjektivität
5. Aspekte der Handlungsrationalität
6. Rekonstruktive vs. verstehende Sozialwissenschaften
7. Konzeptionen der Moderne. Ein Rückblick auf zwei Traditionen

2. Diskurs- und Sprachtheorie

Vorwort
Einleitung
1. Hermeneutische und analytische Philosophie. Zwei komplementäre Spielarten der linguistischen Wende
2. Zur Kritik der Bedeutungstheorie
3. Rationalität und Verständigung. Sprechakttheoretische Erläuterungen zum Begriff der kommunikativen Rationalität
4. Kommunikatives Handeln und detranszendentalisierte Vernunft
5. Wahrheitstheorien
6. Wahrheit und Rechtfertigung. Zu Richard Rortys pragmatischer Wende
7. Realismus nach der sprachpragmatischen Wende

3. Diskursethik

Vorwort
Einleitung
1. Diskursethik – Notizen zu einem Begründungsprogramm
2. Diskursethik und Gesellschaftstheorie. Ein Interview mit T. Hviid Nielsen
3. Erläuterungen zur Diskursethik
4. Eine genealogische Betrachtung zum kognitiven Gehalt der Moral
5. Vom praktischen, ethischen und moralischen Gebrauch der praktischen Vernunft
6. Richtigkeit und Wahrheit. Zum Sinn der Sollgeltung moralischer Urteile und Normen
7. Zur Architektonik der Diskursdifferenzierung. Kleine Replik auf eine große Auseinandersetzung)

4. Politische Theorie

Vorwort
Einleitung
1. Volkssouveränität als Verfahren
2. Drei normative Modelle der Demokratie
3. Hat die Demokratie noch eine epistemische Dimension? Empirische Forschung und normative Theorie
4. Über den internen Zusammenhang von Rechtsstaat und Demokratie
5. Der demokratische Rechtsstaat – eine paradoxe Verbindung widersprüchlicher Prinzipien?
6. Vorpolitische Grundlagen des demokratischen Rechtsstaates?
7. Kulturelle Gleichbehandlung – und die Grenzen des Postmodernen Liberalismus
8. Zur Legitimation durch Menschenrechte
9. Hat die Konstitutionalisierung des Völkerrechts noch eine Chance?
10. Konstitutionalisierung des Völkerrechts und die Legitimationsprobleme einer verfaßten Weltgesellschaft
5. Kritik der Vernunft

5. Kritik der Vernunft

Vorwort
Einleitung
1. Die Philosophie als Platzhalter und Interpret
2. Was Theorien leisten können – und was nicht. Ein Interview
3. Noch einmal: Zum Verhältnis von Theorie und Praxis)
4. Metaphysik nach Kant
5. Motive nachmetaphysischen Denkens
6. Die Einheit der Vernunft in der Vielfalt ihrer Stimmen
7. Von den Weltbildern zur Lebenswelt
8. Das Sprachspiel verantwortlicher Urheberschaft und das Problem der Willensfreiheit: Wie läßt sich der epistemische Dualismus mit einem ontologischen Monismus versöhnen?
9. Die Revitalisierung der Weltreligionen - Herausforderung für ein säkulares Selbstverständnis der Moderne ?
10. Ein Bewußtsein von dem, was fehlt
11. Exkurs: Transzendenz von innen, Transzendenz ins Diesseits
12. Glauben und Wissen. Replik auf Einwände

Link courtesy Thomas Gregersen

Life after Bankruptcy

The interview in "Die Zeit" on the financial crisis is now available in an English translation:

Life after Bankruptcy

original German here


Link courtesy of Thomas Gregersen

Habermas on foreclosure gloom

Die Zeit 06.11.2008

"I hope that the neoliberal agenda will no longer be taken at face value, but will put up for negotiation. The entire programme of uncontrolled subjugation of everyday life to the imperatives of the market must be put to trial," says philosopher Jürgen Habermas in a lengthy conversation with Thomas Assheuer. Habermas watched the impact of the financial crisis with his own eyes, as a guest lecturer in the USA. "The screens flickered with the Hopperesque melancholy of an endless loop of abandoned houses in Florida and elsewhere – with "Foreclosure" signs on the front lawns. Then came the buses full of prospective buyers from Europe and Latin America followed by estate agents who gave guided tours of bedrooms ransacked in fits of anger and desperation. After my return I was surprised at the difference between US jumpiness and the business-as-usual equanimity here in Germany."

from here

The original interview here

The Future(s) of Critical Theory

The Future(s) of Critical Theory
Erste Graduiertenkonferenz, Frankfurt am Main, 19.-21.März 2009

Call for Papers

Kritische Theorie muss mit kleinem "k" geschrieben werden. Nicht nur
deshalb, weil die Ansätze, die sich heute in der Tradition der so
genannten "Frankfurter Schule" sehen, so divers geworden sind, dass es
fragwürdig erscheint, noch von einem einzigen einheitlichen Ansatz zu
sprechen, auch aus inhaltlichen Gründen verbietet sich die Reduzierung
kritischen Denkens auf ein akademisches "Lager". Viel eher als ein
einheitliches philosophisches Denkgebäude bezeichnet der Begriff
"kritische Theorie" unterschiedliche Formen der radikalen
Infragestellung, die bis heute in den geistes- und
gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen, aber auch in den Debatten
um eine emanzipatorische politische Praxis höchst lebendig geblieben
sind. Wie sich an der Vielzahl aktueller Publikationen zum Thema ablesen
lässt, wird gegenwärtig jedoch auch eine rege Diskussion darüber
geführt, was überhaupt noch ein angemessener Begriff von Kritik und
kritischer Theorie sein kann. Dies mag man als Ausdruck einer Krise und
Orientierungslosigkeit der kritischen Theorie sehen, vielleicht aber
auch als Chance für eine erneute Lagebestimmung und als eine
Aufforderung zur Reflexion.

Die Graduiertenkonferenz, die im nächsten Jahr erstmalig stattfinden
wird, will dazu einen Beitrag leisten. Sie bietet Doktorand/innen und
Postdoktorand/innen aus Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften die
Gelegenheit, eigene Forschungsprojekte zu diskutieren und sich mit den
Herausforderungen der kritischen Theorie auseinanderzusetzen. Weil sich
erst am Gegenstand erweisen kann, was kritische Theorie ist, sind dabei
einzelwissenschaftliche Studien ebenso willkommen wie metatheoretische
Überlegungen. Wir laden ausdrücklich auch ein zur Einsendung von
work-in-progress, exposéhaften Präsentationen oder in Kooperation
entstandenen Arbeiten.

Eingereicht werden können Abstracts für Vorträge zu folgenden (oder
anderen) Themen:

__Was ist Kritik? Was ist kritisch an der kritischen Theorie? Wie
kritisch ist die kritische Theorie?
__K/kritische Theorie(n): 1, 2, 3,... ganz viele Generationen;
Anerkennung, Rechtfertigung und Verständigung; kritische Theorie und
Poststrukturalismus; Kritik, Geneaologie, Dekonstruktion; Kantianismus,
Hegelianismus, Nietzscheanismus; Postcolonial Studies, Feminismus und queer
__Kritik mit Methode: Theorie und Empirie; Philosophie und Soziologie;
Erkenntnis und Interesse; militante Untersuchung
__Kritik und das Gute Leben: Begehren, Liebe, Intimität, Affekte, "das
Private" und natürlich Freundschaft
__Kritische Theorie und Kritik der Politik: Demokratie, Sozialismus,
Liberalismus; Macht und/oder Herrschaft; Recht, Staat, Polizei und
Souveränität
__Versöhnung mit dem Kapitalismus? (Ir)rationalität, Entfremdung und
Verdinglichung; alter und neuer Geist des Kapitalismus; Umverteilung
oder Enteignung; Reform oder Revolution
__Die Kultur der Kritik: Sub-, Pop- und Mainstreamkultur(industrie);
Kultur- und Medientheorie; Hegemonie und Diskurs; Narratologie,
Semiotik, Rhetorik

Technics

Abstracts sollten die Länge von 300 Wörtern nicht überschreiten.
Deadline ist der 31. November 2008. Die Auswahl der Beiträge erfolgt bis
spätestens 1.1.2009. Eine Publikation ausgewählter Beiträge nach der
Konferenz wird angestrebt. Die Vorträge werden in einem blind review
ausgewählt, allerdings wird bei der endgültigen Auswahl darauf geachtet,
dass mindestens 50 % der Vorträge an Frauen vergeben werden. Bitte die
Abstracts ohne Name oder sonstige Hinweise auf die Autorin/den Autor
einreichen sowie im Anschreiben Titel des eingereichten Vorschlags
nennen. Konferenzsprachen sind Deutsch und Englisch, Abstracts können in
beiden Sprachen eingereicht werden. Die Vorträge sollen eine Länge von
ca. 20 Minuten haben.

Keynote

Keynote Speaker der Konferenz sind Bonnie Honig (Chicago), Axel Honneth
(Frankfurt) und Emmanuel Renault (Paris/Lyon).

Kontakt

Abstracts können per E-Mail eingereicht werden an
info@graduateconferencefrankfurt.de

Nähere Information: www.graduateconferencefrankfurt.de

_____________________

The Future(s) of Critical Theory
First Graduate Conference in Frankfurt am Main, 19.-21 March 2009

Call for Papers

Whether or not "critical theory" constitutes a well-defined, easily
identifiable and self-contained school of thought has been a matter of
debate. For the organizers of this conference, given the plurality of
theoretical projects that consider themselves in the tradition of the
"Frankfurt School," critical thinking cannot be reduced to one academic
'camp' in any meaningful way. Rather than representing one coherent
philosophical paradigm, 'critical theory' embodies a diverse set of
practices of radical questioning exercised in various discourses
including that of arts, social and political sciences as well as radical
political debate. Moreover critical theory is a highly self-reflexive
process. Thus, rather than being a sign of crisis or lack of
orientation, the increasing number of publications about the meaning and
significance of "critique" and "critical theory" in recent years point
to a vibrant and diverse intellectual community constituted around
similar theoretical and political commitments. The existence of
different theoretical positions and disagreements within that community
can be best interpreted as an invitation to reconsider one's own stance
in relation to other ways of critical thinking and to reflect on common
grounds.

"The Future(s) of Critical Theory" Graduate Conference in Frankfurt aims
to serve as a forum for this ongoing debate. We invite PhD students and
postdocs from the humanities and the social sciences to discuss their
work in relation to the challenges posed by the current debates on the
status of critical theory today. Critical theory proves itself only in
relation to its concrete object of investigation. We are therefore
equally looking forward to the presentation of empirical research as to
theoretical reflections.

Contributions may include -- but need not be limited to -- the following
themes:

__What is Critique? What makes critical theories critical? How critical
is Critical Theory?

__C/critical Theory(ies): 1,2,3...many Generations of critical
theory(ies); Critical Theory and Post/structuralism; Critique,
Genealogy, Deconstruction; Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche; Postcolonial Studies,
Feminism, queer.

__Methodologies of critique: Theory and Practice; Philosophy and
Sociology; Knowledge and Human Interest; Militant Investigation,
Collective Theorization.

__Critique and the Good Life: Desire, Love, Intimacy, Affect, 'The
Private' and of course Friendship.

__Critical Theory, The Political and Politics: Democracies, Socialisms,
Liberalisms; Power and/or Domination; Law, State, Police and Sovereignty.

__Theorizing Capitalism: (Ir)rationality, Alienation and Reification;
Old and New Spirit of Capitalism; Redistribution or Expropriation;
Reform or Revolution.

__Cultures of Critique: Sub-, Pop- and Mainstream- Culture (industries);
Media and Cultural Studies; Hegemony and Discourse; Narratology,
Semiotics and Rhetoric.


Submission Information

Please submit abstracts of a maximum of 300 words to the following
e-mail address: info@graduateconferencefrankfurt.de
. We accept proposals until
the 31. November 2008. Languages of the conference will be German and
English, abstracts can be submitted in either language. Papers presented
at the conference should not exceed the duration of twenty minutes and
will be followed by a brief discussion.
Papers will be selected through a blind review process therefore please
do not mark your name or other indications of the author on abstracts
and make sure to clearly state the title of your proposal in the email.
Candidates will be informed by January 1st whether their paper has been
accepted for presentation.

The publication of a selection of conference papers is intended.

Keynote speakers

Keynote speakers are Bonnie Honig (Chicago), Axel Honneth (Frankfurt)
and Emmanuel Renault (Paris/Lyon).

Contact

For further information see www.graduateconferencefrankfurt.de
.