Critical Theory: Current State and Future Prospects

The retirement of the distinguished philosopher Jürgen Habermas from his chair at the University of Frankfurt signalled an important caesura in the history of Critical Theory: the transition from the Habermasian project, to different forms of inquiry in the work of the next generation. This change-over happens at a time when it has become clear that Habermas's systematic exploration of communicative rationality has reached the point where both its achievements and its limitations had become evident. The essays collected in this volume address the problems connected with this transition, partly by returning to the insights of the first generation (Adorno and Benjamin), partly by focusing on questions raised by Habermas's work. Whatever the difference in the authors' positions, this collection gains its unity through their common interest in the significance and value of Critical Theory today and in its future as a philosophical project.

Table of Contents:
Preface Section I: Introduction Chapter 1. From the Eclipse of Reason to Communicative Rationality and Beyond Peter Uwe Hohendahl Section II: Adorno and Benjamin: Reemerging Questions of Epistemology, History, and Aesthetics Chapter 2. Is Experience Still in Crisis? Reflections on a Frankfurt School Lament Martin Jay Chapter 3. Mega Melancholia: Adorno’s Minima Moralia Eva Geulen Chapter 4. Stumbling Into Modernity: Body and Soma in Adorno Andrew Hewitt Chapter 5. Aesthetic Politics Today: Walter Benjamin and Post-Fordist Culture Lutz Koepnick Section III: In the Wake of Jürgen Habermas: Communicative Reason, Morality, and History Chapter 6. Critique and Self-Reflection: The Problematization of Morality Christoph Menke Chapter 7. Dialogical Rationality and the Critique of Absolute Autonomy Brian Jacobs Chapter 8. Civil Society in the Information Age: Beyond the Public Sphere Jodi Dean Chapter 9. Between Rights and Hospitality: Cosmopolitan Democracy, Nation, and Cultural Identity Max Pensky Chapter 10. A Question of Grounding: Reconstruction and Strict Reflexion in Habermas and Apel Peter Dews Section IV: A Contemporary Challenge to Critical Theory: Systems Theory Chapter 11. Critical Theory and Systems Theory Wolfram Malte Fues Chapter 12. Observations on Observations: Some Remarks on Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory Harro Müller Section V: Epilogue Chapter 13. Normativity and its Limits: Toward a Residual Ethics in Critical Theory Jaimey Fisher Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Peter Uwe Hohendahl is Schurman Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Cornell University and Director of the Institute for German Cultural Studies.