Book Review: In Defence of Communicative Reason:Habermas on Truth, Religion and Bioethics
Abstract
In Defence of Communicative Reason HabermasonTruth,ReligionandBioethics Katrin Toens and Frank Janning Universities of Hamburg and Konstanz Jrgen Habermas Truth and Justification, ed., tr. and with an introduction by Barbara Fultner. Cambridge: Polity Press 2003a. 327 pp. Jrgen Habermas Religion and Rationality: Essays on Reason, God, and Modernity, ed. and with an introduction by Eduardo Mendieta. Cambridge: Polity Press 2002. 176 pp. Jrgen Habermas The Future of Human Nature, Cambridge: Polity Press 2003b. 127pp. Looking back on more than four decades of Jrgen Habermas's intellectual achievements the theory of communicative action1 stands out as the most systematic presentation of his critical social theory. But beyond that remarkable contribution one has to acknowledge Habermas's continuous interdisciplinary engagement as well as the great variety of debates he has been involved in, ranging from the Historians' Dispute to the Anglo-American con- troversy on democratic theory and social justice to the discussions about pressing political problems such as genetic engineering, ethnic conflict and international terrorism. The outstanding broadness of his contribution is further extended by three collections of essays that have recently been published in English. They include systematic reflections on issues in theoretical philosophy Habermas has rarely touched on since the late