Peter Dews

Possessed by Concepts A Study of Concepts By Christopher Peacocke MIT Press, 1992. Pp. x + 266. ISBN 0–262–161338. £24.95. Morality, ethics and ‘postmetaphysical thinking: new books by Jürgen Habermas The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Enquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society Polity Press, 1992, Pp.300, ISBN 0–7456–1077–3. £35/11.95. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action Polity Press, 1992. Pp. 280. ISBN 0–7456–1104–4. £29.50. Postmetaphysical Thinking. Philosophical Essays Polity Press, 1992. Pp. 200. ISBN 0–7456–0734–9. £29.50. Justification and Application. Remarks on Discourse Ethics Polity Press, 1993. Pp. 192. ISBN 0–7456–0143–9. £35/11.95. Shame and Necessity By Bernard Williams University of California Press, 1993. Pp. xii + 254. ISBN 0–520–08046–7. $25.

Comprised of classic and newly-commissioned papers from leading theorists, this volume provides a wide-ranging critical introduction to the thought of Jürgen Habermas. Some contributions explore the relation between Habermas's philosophy and the thought of major predecessors, including Kant, Hegel, Marx and Heidegger. Others elucidate the political context of Habermas's thinking, while a final section presents the responses of leading German contemporaries to his work. The result is a more rounded picture of Habermas's oeuvre and achievement than has previously been available. Habermas emerges as a thinker whose outstanding powers of renewal and innovation are inseparable from his engagement with the major traditions of European thought, and his own intellectual and political context.