Habermas: An Intellectual Biography

by Matthew G. Specter

This book follows postwar Germany's leading philosopher and social thinker, Jurgen Habermas, through four decades of political and constitutional struggle over the shape of liberal democracy in Germany. Habermas's 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, NATO's decision to station nuclear weapons, and the unexpected collapse of East Germany. In turn, Habermas's 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.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography, History

278 pages, Hardcover

First published September 29, 2006

Reviews

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. very good on the whole, excellent treatment of habermas’ core political works, and sets them in relevant (and rich!) context. i’m left wondering if the conclusion of this book is too hopeful about habermas’ legacy, though. didn’t neoliberalism just win, globally? surely no liberal ideals were redeemed, they were killed, and then replaced with new corporate ideals instead. i guess that’s a lacuna in habermas, not specter, one never to be filled.

[John Borthwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting book on the work of Jurgen Habermas. As the title suggests, this is less a biography of Habermas than it is the contextualization of Habermas's philosophy and theory in historical and political context. Spencer does an excellent job of describing post war politics and academic thought in Germany. Habermas had a daunting task of comprehending political order and virtue in a State that was having a crisis as the country responsible for the atrocities and insanity of the Nazi party. Spencer's book takes the time to look at Habermas's perspective on the academic climate of Germany, the reforming of Statehood and Constitutional law, the relation of civil disobedience to the evolution of law and order, and overall discusses Habermas's lifework and place in Germany as a philosopher and intellectual. Highly recommended to those who enjoy Habermas as a challenging and profound political and social theorist.

[The Book : An Online Review at The New Republic]

Jürgen Habermas ranks today as the single most important public intellectual in all of Continental Europe. But he is also a formidable philosopher whose major contributions to social and political theory, constitutional law, historical sociology, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of language (to name only the fields he revisits with greatest frequency) are pitched at such air-gasping heights of difficulty and place such merciless demands upon the reader as to turn away all but the most fearless. Read more...