In response to William Rehg’s and Barbara Fultner’s criticisms, I clarify and extend some arguments found in my book Reflection Revisited. I first redescribe how Hegel’s critique of Kant’s theory of reflection opens up the possibility for an intersubjective reflection. Habermas, I argue, can exploit such a theory of reflection since it is immune from the problems attendant on a ‘theory of consc...

I elaborate on the tension between Luhmann’s social systems theory and Habermas’ theory of communicative action, and argue that this tension can be resolved by focusing on language as the interhuman medium of the communication which enables us to develop symbolically generalized media of communication such as truth, love, power, etc. Following Luhmann, the layers of self-organization among the ...

I offer a major reassessment of Foucault’s philosophico-historical account of the basic problems of modernity. I revise our understanding of Foucault by countering the influential misinterpretations proffered by his European interlocutors such as Habermas and Derrida. Central to Foucault’s account of modernity was his work on two crucial concept pairs: freedom/power and reason/madness. I argue ...

É discutível que Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit seja a obra maior de Jürgen Habermas. Mas parece inquestionável ser este seu trabalho aquele alcançou uma projeção pública (e também no meio académico e da ciência). A imagem correspondente é Habermas como o grande teórico do espaço público – por muito ao próprio autor rótulo se mostre menos adequado e, talvez até, pouco verdadeiro.

Introduction Post World War II Germany was facing enormous problems caused by its immediate past: psychological, economical, social, political, moral. In addition it had to deal with an awkward situation of the country being split artificially into two diametrically different republics. It had to cope with its heritage and recent past and find a way out of the impasse to be able to function in ...

Language and Social Sciences includes new and inedited contributions from Searle and Crea about topics such as speech acts and postmodernism. Their analyses of the relation between language and social sciences clarify their respective critiques to Habermas’ conception of speech acts and contribute specific insights that help to distinguish a free communicative act from one that includes psychol...