The Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas is the most influential thinker in Germany today.

He has developed a coherent and highly imaginative approach to a wide range of issues in the social sciences and humanities, an approach which is rooted in the traditions of classical German philosophy and critical social theory.

Thomas McCarthy’s book – the first full-length study of Habermas – offers a systematic and intelligent guide to Habermas’s work. McCarthy traces the development of Habermas’s views from his early writings on political theory, through his controversial accounts of knowledge and communication, to his more recent work on social evolution and legitimation. With exceptional skill McCarthy both introduces the reader to complex ideas, situating these within the Continental traditions from which they stem, and subjects Habermas’s work to rigorous, sympathetic criticism.

This new paperback edition contains a detailed index and a new and greatly enlarged bibliography of Habermas’s work. The volume is invaluable for students of philosophy, sociology and political science and for anyone interested in contemporary social and political theory.