The Consolidation of Postmetaphysical Thinking

Habermas and the History of Philosophy, Volume II
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-97384-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 300 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Reihe: Antinomies

Simon Susen’s trilogy offers a systematic account of Jürgen Habermas’s Also a History of Philosophy. It provides a comprehensive overview of the central issues at stake in this magnum opus and, crucially, assesses its most significant limitations and shortcomings.

Susen shows how Habermas’s approach to the history of philosophy seeks to reconstruct the genealogy of postmetaphysical thinking by tracing the tension-laden relationship between faith and knowledge back to the major developments brought about during the Axial Age. The trilogy examines how Habermas’s latest project invites us to reconsider not only classical antinomies – such as faith vs. knowledge, the sacred vs. the profane, religion vs. science – but also the role of philosophy in the twenty-first century, particularly with regard to its capacity to overcome the tension between ‘ideologization’ [Verweltanschaulichung] and ‘scientization’ [Verwissenschaftlichung]. This endeavour, Susen argues, sheds light on the extent to which the emancipatory potential of rational freedom, far from being reducible to a mere product of the Enlightenment, has been present throughout human history – most notably in the processes of ‘the linguistification of the sacred’ in advanced civilizations during the first millennium BCE. Informed by a meticulous analysis of the Epilogue to the original German-language edition – which contains valuable insights into Habermas’s retrospective reflections on his main arguments and engages with the reception of his ambitious theoretical enterprise – this definitive trilogy serves as an essential guide to one of Habermas’s seminal works.

The second volume, The Consolidation of Postmetaphysical Thinking, explores the dimensions that are particularly important to Habermas’s project of developing a genealogy of postmetaphysical thinking.

This trilogy is for all those in the social sciences and humanities studying and researching classical and contemporary social theory, the sociology of knowledge, the sociology of religion, political sociology, cultural sociology, social and political philosophy, epistemology, the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of history, the philosophy of language, and the history of social and political thought.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Susen, Simon

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Erkenntnistheorie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Gesellschaftstheorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Pragmatismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Habermas’s Second Intermediate Reflection: The Caesura of the Separation of Faith and Knowledge a. The Development of Philosophy With, through, and beyond Theology b. The Development of Political and Legal Philosophy c. The Development of the Natural Sciences d. The End of the Age of World Pictures i. Kant ii. Hume iii. Kant vs. Hume VIII. Towards the Consolidation of Postmetaphysical Thinking The Enlightenment Project via Hume and Kant IX. The Linguistic Embodiment of Reason in History and Society From ‘Subjective Spirit’ to ‘Objective Spirit’ Habermas’s Third Intermediate Reflection From ‘Objective Spirit’ to ‘Communicative Action’ a. The Hegelian Concept of ‘Totality’ – A Formal-Pragmatic Interpretation b. The Paradigm Shift from the Philosophy of Consciousness to the Philosophy of Language c. Detranscendentalization – with, against, and beyond the Hegelian System i. Language and Intersubjectivity ii. The Mode of ‘Empowering Dependence’ iii. Being-in-the-World through a ‘Milieu of Reasons’ iv. The Human Interest in the Rationality of Reason X. Postmetaphysical Thinking after Hegel 1. Feuerbach 2. Marx 3. Kierkegaard 4. Peirce 5. Reason(ing) in Research and Politics Postscript Epistemological Non-Circumventability 1. Pragmatic Attitudes and Language Use 2. Cognitive and Moral-Practical Learning Processes 3. Reason and Progress 4. Rational Freedom Epilogue 1. Why Bother with Faith and Knowledge? 2. Hume and Kant: Two Alternative Paths towards Postmetaphysical Thinking? 3. Why ‘Also’ a History of Philosophy? 4. The (De)Socialization of World Pictures: The Goalless Direction of a ‘Non-Teleological Teleology’? 5. Towards the Detranscendentalization of Reason and the Emancipation of Freedom? 6. The Motivational Power(lessness) of Rational Morality? 7. Reason in History A Never-Ending Learning Process?

Über Autor(innen)

Simon Susen is Professor of Sociology at City St George’s, University of London. He is Associate Member of the Bauman Institute and, together with Bryan S. Turner, Editor of the Journal of Classical Sociology.