Habermas An Intellectual Biography [Paperback]

This book follows postwar Germany's leading philosopher and social thinker, J?rgen Habermas, through four decades of German political and constitutional struggles.This book follows postwar Germanys leading philosopher and social thinker, J?rgen Habermas, through four decades of political and constitutional struggle over the shape of liberal democracy in Germany. Here Habermass writings on state, law, and constitution played a critical role, recasting German political thought and reorienting its political culture.This book follows postwar Germanys leading philosopher and social thinker, J?rgen Habermas, through four decades of political and constitutional struggle over the shape of liberal democracy in Germany. Here Habermass writings on state, law, and constitution played a critical role, recasting German political thought and reorienting its political culture.This book follows postwar Germanys leading philosopher and social thinker, J?rgen Habermas, through four decades of political and constitutional struggle over the shape of liberal democracy in Germany. Habermass most influential theories  of the public sphere, communicative action, and modernity  were decisively shaped by major West German political events: the failure to de-Nazify the judiciary, the rise of a powerful Constitutional Court, student rebellions in the late 1960s, the changing fortunes of the Social Democratic Party, NATOs decision to station nuclear weapons, and the unexpected collapse of East Germany. In turn, Habermass writings on state, law, and constitution played a critical role in reorienting German political thought and culture to a progressive liberal-democratic model. Matthew Specter uniquely illuminates the interrelationship between the thinker and his culture.Introduction; 1. The making of a '58er: Habermas's search for a method; 2. Habermas as synthesizer of German constitutional theory, 195863; 3. From the 'great refusal' to the theory of communicative action, 196181; 4.lÃ4