Habermas between Critical Theory and Liberalism

This book identifies the turning points in Habermas's work and his transition from one stage to another in the development of his theoretical oeuvre. Habermas began his academic career as part of the Frankfurt School, but the two key points at which his career changes trajectory are moving from historical materialism to normative idealism and playing with some of the ideas of liberalism. Normative idealism is an ahistorical theory that insists on the independence of the normative from material reality, severing the connection between base and superstructure that Marx wrote about. The break with the basic concepts of Marxism enabled Habermas to build his own discursive (critical) theory, which, especially since the end of the 1980s, takes the ideas of liberalism seriously. This book makes a systematic, multidimensional and detailed analysis of Habermas's theoretical oeuvre in two dimensions, chronological (in the order in which Habermas worked on certain topics) and thematic (enclosing certain thematic units).

Kire Sharlamanov is Full Professor of Sociology at the International Balkan University, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia. His specialty is in the field of political sociology. He is the author of several books and articles in the field of sociology. In 2022 Kire Sharlamanov was president of the Association of Sociologists of Macedonia.