Overview

Reading Habermas: Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere dissolves Habermas’s monolithic stylization to precisely access his seminal distinction between the purely political polis of antiquity, which excludes the private economy from the res publica, and the modern public sphere with its rational-critical discourse about commodity exchange and social labor in the political economy. Deconstructing the uniform mold of Structural Transformation’s narrative about a rise and fall of the bourgeois public sphere in modernity also allows to identify and understand the ideology-critical methodologies of Habermas’s theory reconstruction of Kant’s ideal of the liberal public in the context of the French Revolution. Readers of this guide realize that Habermas’s interpretation of a sociological and political category with the norms of constitutional theory and intellectual history causes the “collapsing of norm and description” he acknowledged in 1989 and thus frequent misunderstandings about the historical validity of Structural Transformation’s ideal-type derived from Condorcet’s absolute rationalism and Kant’s “unofficial” philosophy of history. Specifically, the guide explains that Habermas’s key construct of a “morally pretentious rationality” of the bourgeois public sphere entirely depends on the claim about “natural laws” harmoniously regulating the economy. While neoliberalism still maintains this claim, Hegel “decisively destroyed” it already in 1821.

Full Product Details

Author:   Michael Hofmann
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Lexington Books
ISBN:  

9781498590181

ISBN 10:   1498590187
Pages:   306
Publication Date:   05 February 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Preface: The Social Media Transformation of the Public Sphere and the Crisis of Neoliberal Democracy Introduction: The Unique Significance of Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere for the Theory and Practice of Democratic Deliberation Chapter 1: Structural Transformation’s Normative Theses about a Dissolution of Domination in the Bourgeois Public Sphere Chapter 2: Habermas’s Dialectical Use of Ideology Critique to Counterfactually Assert a Moment of Historical Credibility for the Bourgeois Ideal of the Public Sphere Chapter 3: Structural Transformation’s Cold War Origins: Habermas’s Defense of Kantian Rationality, Human Rights, and the Enlightenment Chapter 4: Participatory Democracy versus Political Manipulation: The Role of Habermas’s “Celebrated Coffee Houses” (Todd Gitlin) in the Modern Public Sphere Chapter 5: Understanding Habermas’s Public Sphere Concept by Dissolving its Monolithic Stylization: Structural Transformation’s Interpretation of a Sociological and Political Category with the Norms of Constitutional Theory and Intellectual History Chapter 6: Structural Transformation’s Tacit Model Case of the Bourgeois Public Sphere: The French Revolution, Kant’s “Unofficial” Philosophy of History, Condorcet Absolute Rationalism, and Schiller’s Expressive Subjectivism Chapter 7: The Achilles’ Heel of Schiller’s Moral Stage and Structural Transformation’s Moral Politics: A Dependency of Smith’s Political Economy and Kant’s Constitutional Law on Mandeville’s Moral Paradox of Bourgeois Society Chapter 8: Habermas’s Unexplained Methodology: A Complex “Ideology-Critical Procedure” Chapter 9: The Result of Structural Transformation’s Dialectical Use of Schmitt’s “Civil War Topos” and Koselleck’s “Process of Criticism:” A Tension between Developmental History and Ideology-Critical Procedure Conclusion: Renewing the Human Rights Perspective in the Political Public Sphere

Reviews

For those concerned about the rise of ""post-truth"" politics and the apparent erosion of constitutional norms in well-established constitutional democracies, Jürgen Habermas's classic Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere is essential reading. Guided by his insight that the health of a democracy is connected to the health of its public sphere, Habermas provides a valuable examination of the nature and conditions of constitutional government and a critique of the degeneration of public argument into modes of mass manipulation. Hofmann's Reading Habermas: Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere is perhaps the most detailed reading guide in English for Habermas's book. Hofmann places it under the microscope and links Habermas's study to a broader intellectual history, the development of neoliberalism, and particular historical events. Reading Habermas is an extraordinary piece of Habermas scholarship and a valuable contribution to discussions about the relation between political economy and democratic theory. Highly recommended. Graduate students and faculty. -- ""Choice Reviews"" Jürgen Habermas' Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere is undeniably one of the most significant works of political and social analysis written in any language since 1945. And there may be no scholar anywhere who knows more about Habermas' study than Michael Hofmann. Hofmann not only offers a provocative analysis of the strengths and possible weaknesses of Habermas' famous account of the public sphere, but he also creatively suggests why it remains relevant for understanding politics and society. --William E. Scheuerman, Indiana University This important and timely book brings out the centrality of the public sphere to Habermas's overall project and shows how and why he has recently returned to the topic with ever-growing urgency. --William Outhwaite, Newcastle University

Author Information

Michael Hofmann is professor of Communication and Multimedia Studies at Florida Atlantic University.

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