The Derrida-Habermas Reader

Jacques Derrida and Jürgen Habermas have long represented opposite camps in contemporary thought. Derrida, who pioneered the intellectual style of inquiry known as deconstruction, ushered in the postmodern age with his dramatic critique of reason; Habermas, on the other hand, has consistently argued in defense of reason, modernity, and the legacy of the Enlightenment. Their many differences led to a long-standing, if scattered, dialogue, evidence of which has been available in only bits and pieces. But now, for the first time, The Derrida-Habermas Reader brings these pieces together, along with a collection of essays documenting the intellectual relationship between two of the twentieth century’s preeminent thinkers.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Introduction: Between Deconstruction and Rational Reconstruction Part I - Philosophy and Literature Introduction 1. Leveling the Genre Distinction between Philosophy and Literature Jürgen Habermas 2. Is There a Philosophical Language? Jacques Derrida 3. Habermas, Derrida and the Functions of Philosophy Richard Rorty Part II - Ethics and Politics Introduction 4. An Allegory of Modernity/Postmodernity: Habermas and Derrida Richard J. Bernstein 5. Frankfurt Impromptu - Remarks on Derrida and Habermas Simon Critchley 6. Performative Powerlessness - A Response to Simon Critchley Jacques Derrida 7. How to Respond to the Ethical Question Jürgen Habermas 8. Democracy and Difference: Reflections on the Metapolitics of Lyotard and Derrida Seyla Benhabib Part III - Identity/Difference: Rights, Tolerance and Political Space Introduction 9. Dead Rights, Live Futures: On Habermas´s Attempt to Reconcile Constitutionalism and Democracy Bonnie Honig 10. ´A Bizarre, Even Opaque Practice´: Habermas on Constitutionalism and Democracy Lasse Thomassen 11. Religious Tolerance - The Pacemaker for Cultural Rights Jürgen Habermas 12. Hostipitality Jacques Derrida 13. Between Deliberation and Deconstruction: The Condition of Post-National Democracy Martin Morris Part IV - Beyond the Nation-State: Europe, Cosmopolitanism and International Law Introduction 14. For a Justice to Come: An Interview with Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida and Lieven De Canter 15. February 15, or What Binds Europeans Together: A Plea for a Common Foreign Policy, Beginning in the Core of Europe Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida 16. Between Hope and Terror: Habermas and Derrida Plead for the Im/Possible Martin Beack Matustík Afterwords Introduction 17. Honesty of Thought Jacques Derrida 18. A Last Farewell: Derrida´s Enlightening Impact Jürgen Habermas