Jürgen Habermas. Une biographie

by Stefan Müller-Doohm, Frédéric Joly (Translator)

Sans conteste, Jürgen Habermas est l’un des derniers intellectuels majeurs au niveau international. "Défenseur de la modernité" et "conscience publique de la République fédérale", il est aussi un éminent penseur de l’Europe.

Par ses monographies et nombreux articles, recueillis en volumes, traduits dans plus de quarante langues, il s’est acquis, en tant que philosophe, une réputation mondiale et, en tant qu’auteur, il a reçu un écho qui excède de loin le monde académique. Un tel constat conduirait aisément à en inférer que sa biographie devrait au fond être celle de son œuvre. Mais si cette vie fascine, c’est qu’elle ne peut aucunement se résumer à une pile de livres savants.

En effet, Habermas a toujours plus quitté l’espace protégé de l’univers académique pour endosser le rôle du polémiste pugnace, et peser de cette façon sur l’histoire des mentalités de l’Allemagne et de l’Europe. Aussi l’ouvrage de Stefan Müller-Doohm, à qui l’on doit déjà une biographie d’Adorno, noue-t-il deux trames : d’une part la description des allers-retours sinueux entre activité professionnelle principale et activité seconde, et d’autre part l’interdépendance entre les évolutions de la pensée du philosophe et les interventions de l’intellectuel public dans le contexte de son temps.

L’action conjuguée de la réflexion philosophique et de l’intervention intellectuelle, qui caractérise l’activité de Jürgen Habermas, explique que cette biographie soit celle tant d’une vie que d’une œuvre en devenir perpétuel.

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, Sociology

610 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 16, 2014

Reviews

[Turbulent_Architect · Rating 3 out of 5]

Habermas once quipped that "in general the life of a philosopher is rather poor in external events.” Well, that quote might as well have been the book's epigraph. Sure, his life contained some interesting episodes. His involvement with the student riots of the 1960s stands out here. But for the most part, his Müller-Doohm's biography of him reads like a list of academic achievements: Of degrees, publications, appointments, grants, awards, speeches, conferences, debates, and editorials. To give credit where credit is due, the book is staggeringly well researched. But it gives us very little insight into Habermas himself. Whatever insight it does give is into his qualities as an intellectual, with only fleeting glances at Habermas the man.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jürgen Habermas is one of the most prolific authors of the last hundred years, and has just recently added a two-volume history of western philosophy to his tally. It is a shame that Stefan Müller-Doohm’s biography was published before Habermas’s Auch Eine Geschichte der Philosophie, but such is Habermas’ productivity that any book written about him is likely to be slightly outdated by its publication. Indeed, he may well have published another book by the time we get half-way through this review.

Müller-Doohm’s biography will remain valuable regardless. He brings to the task great skill as an historian of critical theory and as a writer: he studied with Adorno and Horkheimer and wrote a biography of the former. Müller-Doohm’s Habermas is well organized and clear, as well as extremely well researched. Müller-Doohm does not offer full or extensive analyses of Habermas’ ideas, but that is not the task of a biography, which should put those ideas in historical and personal context. At this, Müller-Doohm succeeds admirably. Habermas appears here in the lights of post-war German history, of his own extensive, idiosyncratic philosophical reading, and of the professional structures that he navigates so successfully.

See the full review here: https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/revi...