# Habermas Commentary/Books/PDM

Commentary on Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures copyright 1985 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (Germany) translated by Frederick Lawrence published 1987 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (Cambridge)

### I. Modernity’s Consciousness of Time and Its Need for Self-Reassurance

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    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

### II. Hegel’s Concept of Modernity

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

### Excursus on Schiller’s “Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man”

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 45 46 47 48 49 50

### III. Three Perspectives: Left Hegelians, Right Hegelians, and Nietzsche

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74

### Excursus on the Obsolescence of the Production Paradigm

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82

### IV. The Entry into Postmodernity: Nietzsche as a Turning Point

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105

### V. The Entwinement of Myth and Enlightenment: Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130

### VI. The Undermining of Western Rationalism through the Critique of Metaphysics: Martin Heidegger

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160

### VII. Beyond a Temporalized Philosophy of Origins: Jacques Derrida’s Critique of Phonocentrism

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184

### Excursus on Leveling the Genre Distinction between Philosophy and Literature

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210

### VIII. Between Eroticism and General Economics: Georges Bataille

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237

### IX. The Critique of Reason as an Unmasking of the Human Sciences: Michel Foucault

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265

### X. Some Questions Concerning the Theory of Power: Foucault Again

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293

### XI. An Alternative Way out of the Philosophy of the Subject: Communicative versus Subject-Centered Reason

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326

### Excursus on Cornelius Castoriadis: The Imaginary Institution

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335

### XII. The Normative Content of Modernity

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367

### Excursus on Luhmann’s Appropriation of the Philosophy of the Subject through Systems Theory

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385

### Notes

    Page Topics Addressed in Detailed Commentary 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 Note 28. 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422