‘There isn't any replacement to postmetaphysical thinking’: this assertion, made by means of Jürgen Habermas in 1988, has misplaced none of its relevance. Postmetaphysical considering is, within the first position, the historic resolution to the quandary of metaphysics following Hegel, whilst the significant metaphysical figures of inspiration started to totter less than the strain exerted through social advancements and via advancements inside of technology. for this reason, philosophy’s epistemological privilege was once shaken to its middle, its uncomplicated thoughts have been de-transcendentalized, and the primacy of thought over perform was once opened to question. For solid purposes, philosophy ‘lost its amazing status’, yet for this reason it additionally courted new difficulties. In Postmetaphysical pondering II, the sequel to the 1988 quantity that bears an analogous identify (English translation, Polity 1992), Habermas addresses a few of these problems.

The first part of the ebook bargains with the shift in viewpoint from metaphysical worldviews to the lifeworld, the unarticulated meanings and assumptions that accompany daily concept and motion within the mode of ‘background knowledge’. Habermas analyses the lifeworld as a ‘space of purposes’ – even the place language isn't (yet) concerned, similar to, for instance, in gestural conversation and rituals. within the moment part, the uneasy dating among faith and postmetaphysical considering takes centre degree. Habermas alternatives up the place he left off in 1988, whilst he made the far-sighted remark that ‘philosophy, even in its postmetaphysical shape, might be capable neither to switch nor to repress religion’, and explores philosophy’s new-found curiosity in faith, between different subject matters. the ultimate part contains essays at the position of faith within the political context of a post-secular, liberal society.

This quantity might be of serious curiosity to scholars and students in philosophy, faith and the social sciences and arts generally.