The Ends of Solidarity: Discourse Theory in Ethics and Politics

Max Pensky

jan 2009 · State University of New York Press

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Jürgen Habermas's discourse theory demands that human beings see themselves in relations of solidarity that cross national, racial, and religious divides. While his theory has won adherents across a spectrum of contemporary debates, the required vision of solidarity has remained largely unexplored. In The Ends of Solidarity, Max Pensky fills this void by examining Habermas's theory of solidarity, while also providing a comprehensive introduction to the German philosopher's work. Pensky explores the impact of Habermasian discourse theory on a range of contemporary debates in politics and ethics, including the prospect of a cosmopolitan democracy across national borders; the solidarity demanded by the integration process in the European Union; the demands that immigration dynamics make on inclusive democratic societies; the divisive or unifying effects of religion in Western democracies; and the current controversies in genetic technology.

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Max Pensky is Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He is the author of Melancholy Dialectics: Walter Benjamin and the Play of Mourning; editor of The Actuality of Adorno: Critical Essays on Adorno and the Postmodern, also published by SUNY Press; and translator and editor of Habermas's The Past as Future: Vergangenheit als Zukunft.