What do you think?
Rate this book
Ideals and Illusions: On Reconstruction and Deconstruction in Contemporary Critical Theory
These lucid and closely reasoned studies of the thought of Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, and Richard Rorty provide a coherent analysis of major pathways in recent critical theory. They defend a position analogous to Kant's - that ideas of reason are both unavoidable presuppositions of thought that have to be carefully reconstructed and persistent sources of illusions that have to be repeatedly deconstructed.
McCarthy examines the critique of impure reason from the complementary viewpoints of the attackers and defenders of Enlightenment rationality. He first analyzes the work of Rorty, Foucault, and Derrida to determine what these radical critics have contributed to our understanding of reason and where they have gone wrong. He explores Habermas's theory of communicative rationality, focusing on the attempt to go beyond hermeneutics, the incorporation of systems theory, the implications of discourse ethics for our understanding of political debate and collective decision making, and the relation of political theology to critical social theory.
The analysis and assessment of Habermas's recent work in Ideals and Illusions serves as a sequel to McCarthy's earlier study The Critical Theory of Jurgen Habermas.
McCarthy examines the critique of impure reason from the complementary viewpoints of the attackers and defenders of Enlightenment rationality. He first analyzes the work of Rorty, Foucault, and Derrida to determine what these radical critics have contributed to our understanding of reason and where they have gone wrong. He explores Habermas's theory of communicative rationality, focusing on the attempt to go beyond hermeneutics, the incorporation of systems theory, the implications of discourse ethics for our understanding of political debate and collective decision making, and the relation of political theology to critical social theory.
The analysis and assessment of Habermas's recent work in Ideals and Illusions serves as a sequel to McCarthy's earlier study The Critical Theory of Jurgen Habermas.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 2, 2021
I'm a great fan of the postmodernists, and Thomas McCarthy is taking a very critical approach to their thought. However, he's not coming at it from an unsympathetic right-wing perspective; he's talking about how their modes of thought fail to deliver on the liberatory promise he generally supports.
McCarthy's engagement with the work of Rorty, Foucault, Derrida and Habermas seems very fair-minded as well as extremely lucid. He makes the point that much of their thought focuses on a negative critique but doesn't tell us much about how their analyses can form the basis for a positive course of action in society. Except for a detour into theology at the end, McCarthy's thesis seemed very persuasive.
McCarthy's engagement with the work of Rorty, Foucault, Derrida and Habermas seems very fair-minded as well as extremely lucid. He makes the point that much of their thought focuses on a negative critique but doesn't tell us much about how their analyses can form the basis for a positive course of action in society. Except for a detour into theology at the end, McCarthy's thesis seemed very persuasive.
Displaying 1 of 1 review