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The Justification of Toleration: An Interview with Rainer ForstIn Mitja Sardoč (ed.), Making Sense of Toleration: Interviews and Conversations, Springer Nature Switzerland. pp. 49-57. 2025.Rainer Forst takes up one of the central controversies associated with toleration, i.e. the plurality of normative justifications that have been and can be given for or against toleration. At the same time, he elaborates on the distinction between a general concept and particular conceptions of toleration. He contrasts a “permission conception” of toleration with a “respect conception.” By contextualizing his intellectual journey influenced by scholars such as Jürgen Habermas, John Rawls and T.M…Read more
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Toleranz und AnerkennungIn Ludwig Siep, Heikki Ikäheimo & Michael Quante (eds.), Handbuch Anerkennung, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. pp. 85-91. 2019.Um das Verhältnis von Anerkennung und Toleranz zu klären, wird aufgezeigt, dass es (vor dem Hintergrund einer Analyse des Konzepts der Toleranz) vier Konzeptionen der Toleranz gibt, denen verschiedene Anerkennungsformen entsprechen. Welche davon die angemessene ist, entscheiden andere normative Ressourcen als die der Toleranz oder der Anerkennung.
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468On the Role of the Political Theorist Regarding Global InjusticeGlobal Justice Theory Practice Rhetoric 6 40-53. 2013.Interview of Katrin Flikschuh, Rainer Forst and Darrel Moellendorf by Valentin Beck and Julian Culp for Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric.
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23On the Role of the Political Theorist Regarding Global InjusticeGlobal Justice : Theory Practice Rhetoric 6. 2014.Interview of Katrin Flikschuh, Rainer Forst and Darrel Moellendorf by Valentin Beck and Julian Culp for Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric
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26Vertrauen im KonfliktIn Julian Nida-Rümelin, Timo Greger & Andreas Oldenbourg (eds.), Normative Konstituenzien der Demokratie. pp. 87-104. 2024.
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18Gli esseri umani sono esseri giustificanti: offrono, chiedono ed esigono giustificazioni. Le norme e le istituzioni che seguono si basano su narrazioni di giustificazione storicamente date che, nel loro insieme, costituiscono un ordine normativo, dinamico e ricco di tensioni. Superando l’alternativa tra teorie “ideali” e teorie “realiste”, Rainer Forst dimostra in questo libro come i concetti di normatività e potere siano strettamente correlati: il potere si basa, infatti, sulla capacità di infl…Read more
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91The rational critique of social unreason. On critical theory in the Frankfurt traditionConstellations 30 (4): 395-400. 2023.Constellations, EarlyView.
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55Who is Haunted by the Shadow of God? Dialectical Notes on Michael Rosen's Narrative of (Failed) SecularizationCritical Review: A Journal of Politics and Society 35 (3): 194-202. 2023.In The Shadow of God, Michael Rosen argues that modern moral philosophy in the tradition of German Idealism is profoundly shaped by religious views these thinkers could not overcome. However, a closer look at Rosen’s critique of Kant’s and Kantian conceptions of morality raises the possibility that Rosen’s view may itself be haunted by the shadow of God. In particular, Rosen appears to believe that a moral imperative of respect for human dignity necessarily requires a religious-transcendent grou…Read more
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159. Die Pflicht zur GerechtigkeitIn Otfried Höffe (ed.), John Rawls: Eine Theorie der Gerechtigkeit, Akademie Verlag. pp. 187-208. 2006.
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23Civil SocietyIn Robert E. Goodin, Philip Pettit & Thomas Winfried Menko Pogge (eds.), A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Wiley-blackwell. 1996.The concept of civil society, generally speaking, refers to a collective of free citizens who organize their common life in an autonomous and co‐operative way. To understand the different meanings and historical dynamic of the concept, three conceptions of it need to be distinguished, the oldest of which long pre‐dates the development of modern notions of ‘state’ and ‘society’. The Aristotelian idea of koinonia politike – translated into Latin as societas civilis – refers to a political communit…Read more
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22Justification Fundamentalism: A Discourse-Theoretical Interpretation of Scanlon’s ContractualismIn Markus Stepanians & Michael Frauchiger (eds.), Reason, Justification, and Contractualism: Themes from Scanlon, De Gruyter. pp. 45-58. 2021.
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26Deontological Communitarianism. Laudation for Thomas M. ScanlonIn Markus Stepanians & Michael Frauchiger (eds.), Reason, Justification, and Contractualism: Themes from Scanlon, De Gruyter. pp. 11-16. 2021.
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1753. Discourse EthicsIn Hauke Brunkhorst, Regina Kreide & Cristina Lafont (eds.), The Habermas handbook. pp. 538-540. 2018.
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3236. The Discourse Theory of Morality: “Discourse Ethics—Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification” (1983)In Hauke Brunkhorst, Regina Kreide & Cristina Lafont (eds.), The Habermas handbook. pp. 383-393. 2018.
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154. A Critical Theory of Human Rights—Some GroundworkIn Cristina Lafont & Penelope Deutscher (eds.), Critical Theory in Critical Times: Transforming the Global Political and Economic Order, Columbia University Press. pp. 74-88. 2017.
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18Die Herausbildung normativer Ordnungen: interdisziplinäre Perspektiven (edited book)Campus Verlag. 2011.Wie kommt es, dass sich Menschen an normative Ordnungen halten, und aus welchen Normen bestehen diese? Die Frage nach deren bindender Kraft beleuchten die philosophischen Beiträge dieses Bandes. Ergänzend wird aus historischer Sicht untersucht, wie sich unterschiedliche Rechtfertigungsweisen von Ordnungen entwickelt haben. Der Konstruktion neuer internationaler Rechtsordnungen gehen die rechtswissenschaftlichen Beiträge nach. Aus politikwissenschaftlicher Perspektive wird schließlich gezeigt, au…Read more
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56The rule of unreason: Analyzing (anti‐)democratic regressionConstellations 30 (3): 217-224. 2023.Constellations, EarlyView.
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57Democratic faith. A philosophical profile of Richard J. BernsteinConstellations 30 (1): 20-22. 2023.
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27Rainer Forst develops a critical theory capable of deciphering the deficits and potentials inherent in contemporary political reality. This calls for a perspective which is immanent to social and political practices and at the same time transcends them. Forst regards society as a whole as an ‘order of justification’ comprising complexes of different norms referring to institutions and corresponding practices of justification. The task of a ‘critique of relations of justification’, therefore, is …Read more
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28Justice, democracy and the right to justification: Rainer Forst in dialogueBloomsbury Academic. 2014.Over the past 15 years, Rainer Forst has developed a fundamental research programme within the tradition of Frankfurt School Critical Theory. The core of this programme is a moral account of the basic right of justification that humans owe to one another as rational beings. This account is put to work by Forst in articulating - both historically and philosophically - the contexts and form of justice and of toleration. The result is a powerful theoretical framework within which to address issues …Read more
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Human rightsIn Darrel Moellendorf & Heather Widdows (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Global Ethics, Routledge. 2014.
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The point of justice : on the paradigmatic incompatibility between Rawlsian "justice as fairness" and luck egalitarianismIn Sarah Roberts-Cady & Jon Mandle (eds.), John Rawls: Debating the Major Questions. 2017.
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32In this collection of essays, the first translation into English of the ground-breaking 'Normativität und Macht' (Suhrkamp 2015), Rainer Forst presents a new approach to critical theory. Each essay reflects on the basic principles that guide our normative thinking. Forst's argument goes beyond 'ideal' and 'realist' theories and shows how closely the concepts of normativity and power are interrelated, and how power rests on the capacity to influence, determine, and possibly restrict the space of…Read more
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The Constitution of Justification : Replies and CommentsIn Ester Herlin-Karnell & Matthias Klatt (eds.), Constitutionalism Justified: Rainer Forst in Discourse. 2019.
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16Der normative Schatten der politischen Lebensform. Kommentar zu Julian Nida-Rümelin, „Zur normativen Ontologie von Grenzen“Philosophisches Jahrbuch 127 (1): 64-68. 2020.
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273. Pierre Bayle’s Reflexive Theory of TolerationIn Melissa S. Williams & Jeremy Waldron (eds.), Toleration and its Limits: Nomos Xlviii, New York University Press. pp. 78-113. 2022.
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1910. Toleration and Truth: Comments on Steven D. SmithIn Melissa S. Williams & Jeremy Waldron (eds.), Toleration and its Limits: Nomos Xlviii, New York University Press. pp. 281-292. 2022.
Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Justice |
Toleration |