د. فرغلى هارون
المدير العـام
 عدد الرسائل : 3278
تاريخ التسجيل : 07/05/2008
 | | موضوع: The Critique of Instrumental Reason from Weber to Habermas, 2010 16/6/2010, 1:30 pm | |
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The Critique of Instrumental Reason from Weber to Habermas
By Darrow Schecter
Continuum, 2010
254 pages
1,5 MB This title explores the most important theoretical and political debates about instrumental reason and political legitimacy, starting with Weber and concluding with the present day. This book analyses the critique of instrumental reason from Weber through to the present day. Weber constitutes the starting point because he represents a key moment of theoretical and political transition. Whereas Englightenment thinkers such as Kant, Rousseau and Hegel had a profound faith in the power of reason to improve society and mankind, Weber signals that far from being a universally positive and progressive force, the institutionalisation of reason might actually be a highly effective tool in the struggle for domination. Schecter charts how Weber's ideas took shape as a response to the works of Nietzsche and Georg Simmel, and how these ideas were taken up by the theorists of the Frankfurt School in their attempts to formulate a critical theory of society, firstly by Horkheimer and Adorno and then later by Habermas in his "The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere". Schecter further explores how Habermas moves away from a Weberian-Marxist version of social theory towards a more optimistic approach based on a linguistic and systems'-theoretical approach in his "Theory of Communicative Action". The book also discusses Heidegger's ontological response to the challenge posed by Weber as well as Walter Benjamin's examination of the contradictions inherent in the attempts to produce a just legal system in the absence of substantive rationality and justice. Contents
Introduction
1 From Reason to Rationalization: Th e Emergence of the Weberian Paradigm
2 Th e Revolutionary Critique of Instrumental Reason: Lukács and Benjamin
3 Horkheimer, Adorno and Critical Th eory
4 Th e Ontological and Republican Critiques: Heidegger and Arendt
5 Reason, Th inking and the Critique of Everyday Life
6 From Rationalization to Communicative Action: Th e Emergence of the Habermasian Paradigm
Conclusion: On Post-Liberal Autonomy and Post-Capitalist Legitimacy
Bibliography
Index | |
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