The Politics of Care in Habermas and Derrida: Between Measurability and Immeasurability

by Richard Ganis

Overview

The Politics of Care in Habermas and Derrida provides a penetrating analysis of the tensions and possibilities that animate the dialogue between two of the most significant frameworks of moral philosophy in the contemporary Continental tradition. The dispute between Habermasian discourse ethics and Derridean deconstruction is the backdrop for the book's excursus on the problem of care for the "otherness of the other"—a question with profound implications at the level of both ethics and politics. In addressing this problem, the study reaches beyond the idioms of Habermas and Derrida and considers care from a number of divergent vantage points, including feminist theory, ecological ethics, the recognition theory of Axel Honneth, and the perspectives of Frankfurt School writers such as Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. In its concluding chapter, the book offers an innovative reconstruction of Habermas's discourse-ethical model, which affirms the latter's overarching commitment to the tradition of moral universalism even as it accords due weight to the contravening standpoint of Derrida and kindred exponents of the ethics of care.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary moral and ethical philosophy, especially those concerned with the work of Habermas and Derrida—both as individual thinkers and as philosophical interlocutors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739150092
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	12/28/2010
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Richard Ganis is visiting lecturer in political philosophy at Lahore University of Management Sciences and editor of Displacement and Belonging in the Contemporary World.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1 Care and Justice: Competing Conceptions of the Moral? 25

2 Care as Unqualified Gift: Derrida's (Im)possible Visitation 43

3 Caring for Nature in Habermas and Derrida: Reconciling the Speaking and Nonspeaking Worlds at the Cost of "Re-enchantment"? 63

4 "Habermasian Care" versus "Derridean Care": Asymmetry or Accord? 95

5 Taking the Measure of Care 121

Bibliography 147

Index 157

About the Author 163

Editorial Reviews

Ganis's book on the politics of care in Habermas and Derrida is a lucid study of an important topic. He analyzes the idea of care in Habermas, Derrida, and Honneth and brings to bear the insights of two different traditions in a fruitful and insightful manner. This is an important book, because the idea of care, though much discussed, is used in so many different senses that the literature has become fragmented in too many different loosely related debates. Ganis unites these into a coherent and well focused study.

James Gordon Finlayson

This is simply an outstanding book! It is superlatively researched and documented. The author wears lightly an extensive, deep and sophisticated understanding of the primary and secondary literature. While it aims to bring Habermasian discourse ethics into dialogue with Derridian deconstructionist ethics, the work is more than a simple orchestrated juxtaposition. In a masterful way, Ganis provides us with overviews of the generative thinking of these titans of modern moral philosophy that are as sweeping as they acute. Neophytes will find this book an useful point of entry into what both traditions or currents—as represented by both thinkers named in the title—can learn from each other; but experts will walk away with nuggets of insights, useful synopsis, and proving questions that make the respective perspectives shine in their best light.

Eduardo Mendieta

This book addresses a point of tension between the thought of Jüurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida regarding care morality in both the political and ethical arenas. Ganis (Lahore Univ. of Management Sciences, Pakistan) wants to expand the positions of each philosopher through the thought of the other but argues that a rapprochement is not feasible. Instead, he attempts to carve out a position that conceives of critical theory as more accommodating to an ethics of care while still preserving its privileging of universalistic moral rights and duties. The argument is laid out in five chapters focused on the advances and failings of an ethics of care as seen through Habermas and Derrida. Each chapter addresses a specific aspect of care, ranging from its relationship to justice through conceptions of care as gift to care for nature and care as a principle of measure. While criticizing both Habermas and Derrida, Ganis ultimately leans more toward the Habermasian perspective and provides more support from other commentators on Habermas's work. Only limited discussion of feminist theories of care is included. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers.

Choice

This book addresses a point of tension between the thought of Jüurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida regarding care morality in both the political and ethical arenas. Ganis (Lahore Univ. of Management Sciences, Pakistan) wants to expand the positions of each philosopher through the thought of the other but argues that a rapprochement is not feasible. Instead, he attempts to carve out a position that conceives of critical theory as more accommodating to an ethics of care while still preserving its privileging of universalistic moral rights and duties. The argument is laid out in five chapters focused on the advances and failings of an ethics of care as seen through Habermas and Derrida. Each chapter addresses a specific aspect of care, ranging from its relationship to justice through conceptions of care as gift to care for nature and care as a principle of measure. While criticizing both Habermas and Derrida, Ganis ultimately leans more toward the Habermasian perspective and provides more support from other commentators on Habermas's work. Only limited discussion of feminist theories of care is included. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers.

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