Abstract

In this important new book, Jürgen Habermas takes up certainfundamental questions of philosophy. While much of his recent workhas been concerned with issues of morality and law, in this newwork Habermas returns to the traditional philosophical questions oftruth, objectivity and reality which were at the centre of hisearlier classic book Knowledge and Human Interests. How can the norms that underpin the linguistically structuredworld in which we live be brought into step with the contingency ofthe development of socio-cultural forms of life? How can the ideathat our world exists independently of our attempts to describe itbe reconciled with the insight that we can never reach realitywithout the mediation of language and that 'bare' reality istherefore unattainable? In Knowledge and Human Interests Habermas answered thesequestions with reference to a weak naturalism and atranscendental-pragmatic realism. Since then, however, he hasdeveloped a formal pragmatic theory which is based on an analysisof speech acts and language use. In this new volume Habermas takesup the philosophical questions of truth, objectivity and realityfrom the perspective of his linguistically-based pragmatic theory.The final section addresses the limits of philosophy and reassessesthe relation between theory and practice from a perspective thatcould be described as 'post-Marxist'. This volume, now available in paperback as well, by one of the world's leading philosophers willbe essential reading for students and scholars of philosophy,social theory and the humanities and social sciences generally.