The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures

"Destined to be the most widely discussed intervention into the increasingly heated controversy over the apparent transition from modernity to postmodernity, Habermas's lastest major effort is certain to raise the level of the debate several notches." -- Martin Jay These lectures constitute Jü rgen Habermas's response to the challenge posed by the radical critique of reason in contemporary French poststructuralism. In tracing the historical turnings that led to our current situation, Habermas tests his ideas about the appropriate form of a postmodern discourse through dialogues with a broad range of past and present critics and theorists. The lectures on Georges Bataille, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Cornelius Castoriadis are of particular note, since they are the first fruits of the recent cross-fertilization between French and German thought.