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26Social theory as critical theory: Horkheimer's program and its relevance todayConstellations 30 (4): 384-389. 2023.Constellations, EarlyView.
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22Decentring critical theory with the help of critical theory: Ecocide and the challenge of anthropocentricismPhilosophy and Social Criticism. forthcoming.Our present situation of anthropogenic ecological disaster calls on Western philosophy in general, and Frankfurt School critical theory in particular, to reconsider some long-standing, entrenched assumptions concerning what it means to be a human agent and to relate to other agents. In my article, I take up the challenge in dialogue with the idea of critical theory articulated by Max Horkheimer in the 1930s. My overall concern is to contribute to on-going efforts to decentre Frankfurt School cri…Read more
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14Constellations, EarlyView.
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5Forever Resistant? Adorno and Radical Transformation of SocietyIn Peter Eli Gordon (ed.), A companion to Adorno, Wiley. 2019.After the Second World War, Adorno was politically engaged as a critical public intellectual in the new Federal Republic of Germany. Nonetheless, in the 1960s, a time of active protest against established norms and the underlying socio‐economic and political conditions, he was widely perceived by the protesting activists as adopting an attitude of resignation in blatant contradiction to the aims of his critical social theory. The chapter considers the validity of this accusation. Section 37.1 se…Read more
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3Keine Wahrheit außer WahrheitIn Herta Nagl-Docekal, Ludwig Nagl & Wolfgang Kaltenbacher (eds.), Viele Religionen, eine Vernunft?: Ein Disput zu Hegel, Akademie Verlag. pp. 176-192. 2008.
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12Freiheit neu vorstellen: menschliches Handlungsvermögen in Zeiten der ökologischen KatastropheDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 71 (2): 178-193. 2023.I address the question of human agency from the perspective of critical social theory, starting from the premise that, today, such theories must focus on the global ecological disaster. I assume, furthermore, that radical societal change is necessary in order to arrest our current disastrous ecological trajectory. Radical societal change calls for a fundamental re-orientation in values globally, on both an individual and collective level. This entails a thorough-going change in perceptions of wh…Read more
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10Book reviews (review)Humana Mente 5 (3): 449-491. 1997.New Books on Philosophy of Religion Divine Discourse: Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks By Nicholas Wolterstorff, Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. 326. ISBN 0–521–47557–0. $18.95. The Historical Christ and the Jesus of Faith: The Incamational Narrative as History By C. Stephen Evans, Oxford University Press, 1996. Pp. 386. ISBN 0–19–826397‐X $17.95. Consciousness and the Mind of God By Charles Taliaferro, Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. 349. ISBN 0–521–46173–1. $6…Read more
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481The Theory of Communicative Action After Three DecadesConstellations 20 (4): 516-517. 2013.This is the introduction to a special section on Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action, published in Constellations 20:4 (2013), and edited by Maeve Cooke and me.
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24Book Review: Civil Disobedience, by William Scheuerman (review)Political Theory 47 (4): 589-594. 2019.
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10Editors’ introduction to the Special Section: The ethics and politics of the AnthropoceneConstellations 30 (2): 105-107. 2023.Constellations, EarlyView.
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18Reenvisioning Freedom: Human Agency in Times of Ecological DisasterConstellations 30 (2): 119-127. 2023.Constellations, EarlyView.
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Beyond positive and negative liberty : Habermas and Honneth on freedom in the political public sphereIn John Christman (ed.), Positive Freedom: Past, Present, and Future, Cambridge University Press. 2021.
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16Immanent Critique of the Immanent Frame: The Critical Potential of A Secular AgeInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 29 (5): 738-758. 2021.Charles Taylor’s method of philosophical argumentation is distinctive, interlacing historical, ontological, phenomenological, hermeneutical, theistic, and ethical strands. His writings contribute t...
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25Existentially lived truth or communicative reason? Habermas’ critique of KierkegaardConstellations 28 (1): 51-59. 2021.
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129Equality, political order and ethics: Hobbes and the systematics of democratic rationalityPhilosophy and Social Criticism 14 (3-4): 339-358. 1988.
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38Private Autonomy and Public Autonomy: Tensions in Habermas’ Discourse Theory of Law and PoliticsKantian Review 25 (4): 559-582. 2020.Habermas dialogically recasts the Kantian conception of moral autonomy. In a legal-political context, his dialogical approach has the potential to redress certain troubling features of liberal and communitarian approaches to democratic politics. Liberal approaches attach greater normative weight to negatively construed individual freedoms, which they seek to protect against the interventions of political authority. Communitarian approaches prioritize the positively construed freedoms of communal…Read more
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8Changing hearts and minds: Cristina Lafont on democratic self-legislationPhilosophy and Social Criticism 47 (1): 58-61. 2020.Lafont argues for a participatory version of deliberative democracy that shares key features with other contemporary approaches, while departing from them in decisive ways. It is based on the Rouss...
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6Book Review: Making the case for privacy rights (review)Philosophy and Social Criticism 31 (1): 131-143. 2005.
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61Translating truthPhilosophy and Social Criticism 37 (4): 479-491. 2011.The article considers the role of translation in encounters between religious citizens and secular citizens. It follows Habermas in holding that translations rearticulate religious contents in a way that facilitates learning. Since he underplays the complexities of translation, it takes some steps beyond Habermas towards developing a more adequate account. Its main thesis is that the required account of translation must keep sight of the question of truth. Focusing on inspirational stories of ex…Read more
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29Ethics and politics in the AnthropocenePhilosophy and Social Criticism 46 (10): 1167-1181. 2020.The most fundamental challenge facing humans today is the imminent destruction of the life-generating and life-sustaining ecosystems that constitute the planet Earth. There is considerable evidence...
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649Transcendence in Postmetaphysical Thinking. Habermas' GodEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 11 (4): 21-44. 2019.Habermas emphasizes the importance for critical thinking of ideas of truth and moral validity that are at once context-transcending and immanent to human practices. in a recent review, Peter Dews queries his distinction between metaphysically construed transcendence and transcendence from within, asking provocatively in what sense Habermas does not believe in God. I answer that his conception of “God” is resolutely postmetaphysical, a god that is constructed by way of human linguistic practices.…Read more
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24Book Review: Civil Disobedience, by William Scheuerman (review)Political Theory 47 (4): 589-594. 2019.
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138Habermas, autonomy and the identity of the selfPhilosophy and Social Criticism 18 (3-4): 269-291. 1992.
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26Higher goods and common goods: Strong evaluation in social lifePhilosophy and Social Criticism 44 (7): 767-770. 2018.
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15La verdad en la ficción narrativa: Kafka, Adorno y más alláSignos Filosóficos 17 (34). 2015.La ficción narrativa tiene el poder de alterar nuestras más arraigadas intuiciones y expectativas acerca de lo que significa seguir una vida éticamente buena, así como del tipo de sociedad que facilitaría tal situación. A veces su poder disruptivo es develador, lo cual lleva a un cambio éticamente significativo en la percepción. Sostengo que los poderes disruptivos y develadores de una ficción narrativa constituyen un potencial para el conocimiento ético. Interpreto este conocimiento como un pro…Read more
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43Beyond Dignity and DifferenceEuropean Journal of Political Theory 8 (1): 76-95. 2009.Revisiting Taylor's 1992 account of the politics of recognition, I argue that he is right to discern a strand in contemporary politics that goes beyond the demand for recognition of dignity. Against Taylor I contend that this is best understood as a concern not for recognition of difference but for the value of something that is not universally shared, such as a particular ethical conception, cultural tradition or religious belief and practice. Using the examples of three social movements I show…Read more