Hans Joas

Robert Neelly Bellah

The Axial Age and its consequences

Wolfgang Knöbl

Argues that sociologists have either ignored or grappled with the idea of war and examines the reasons behind this denial of the violent nature of the human race.

Hobbes to the Present

War in Social Thought

Klaus Wiegandt

This volume concerns itself with the connections between religions and the social world and with the extent, limits, and future of secularization. Dealing with the major religious traditions and their explicit or implicit ideas about the individual, social, and political order, as well as offering an overview of the religious situation in important geographical areas, Secularization and the World Religions analyzes the legal organization of the relationship between state and religion—as well as the role of the natural sciences—in a global perspective. Contributors include such internationally renowned scholars as Winfried Brugger, José Casanova, Hans Joas, and Hans Kippenberg.

Secularization and the World Religions

Hans Joas is one of the foremost social theorists in Germany today. Based on Joas’s celebrated study of George Herbert Mead, this work reevaluates the contribution of American pragmatism and European philosophical anthropology to theories of action in the social sciences. Joas also establishes direct ties between Mead’s work and approaches drawn from German traditions of philosophical anthropology. Joas argues for adding a third model of action to the two predominant models of rational and normative action—one that emphasizes the creative character of human action. This model encompasses the other two, allowing for a more comprehensive theory of action. Joas elaborates some implications of his model for theories of social movements and social change and for the status of action theory in sociology in the face of competition from theories advanced by Luhmann and Habermas. The problem of action is of crucial importance in both sociology and philosophy, and this book—already widely debated in Germany—will add fresh impetus to the lively discussions current in the English-speaking world.

The Creativity of Action

Ernst Troeltsch Professor for the Sociology of Religion Hans Joas

Axel Honneth

Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institut F Axel Honneth

These critical essays on Jurgen Habermas's major contribution to sociological theory, The Theory of Communicative Action, provide an indispensable guide for anyone trying to grasp that large, difficult, and important work. The editors' introduction traces the history of the reception of the work and identifies the main themes on which discussion has focused: a concept of communicative rationality; a theory of action based on distinguishing communicative from instrumental reason; a two-level concept of society that integrates lifeworld and system paradigms; and a critical theory of modernity meant to diagnose the sociopathologies of contemporary society. Axel Honneth is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Berlin. Hans Joas is Professor of Sociology at the Free University, Berlin. Contributors: Jeffrey Alexander. Johann P. Arnason. Johannes Berger. Gunter Dux. Jurgen Habermas. Hans Joas. Hans-Peter Kruger. Thomas McCarthy. Herbert Schnadelbach. Martin Seel. Charles Taylor.

Essays on Jürgen Habermas's The Theory of Communicative Action

Communicative Action

Social Action and Human Nature

Disenchantment is a key term in the self-understanding of modernity. But what exactly does this concept mean? What was its original meaning when Max Weber introduced it? And can the conventional meaning or Max Weber's view really be defended, given the present state of knowledge about the history of religion? In The Power of the Sacred, Hans Joas develops the fundamentals of a new sociological theory of religion by first reconstructing existing theories, from the eighteenth century to the present. Through a critical reading and reassessment of key texts in the three empirical disciplines of history, psychology, and sociology of religion, including the works of David Hume, J.G. Herder, Friedrich Schleiermacher, William James, Emile Durkheim, and Ernst Troeltsch, Joas presents an understanding of religion that lays the groundwork for a thorough study of Max Weber's views on disenchantment. After deconstructing Weber's highly ambiguous use of the concept, Joas proposes an alternative to the narratives of disenchantment and secularization which have dominated debates on the topic. He constructs a novel interpretation that takes into account the dynamics of ever new sacralizations, their normative evaluation in the light of a universalist morality as it first emerged in the "Axial Age," and the dangers of the misuse of religion in connection with the formation of power. Built upon the human experience of self-transcendence, rather than human cognition or cultural discourses, The Power of the Sacred challenges both believers and non-believers alike to rethink the defining characteristics of Western modernity.

An Alternative to the Narrative of Disenchantment

The Power of the Sacred

""Disenchantment" is a key term in the self-understanding of modernity. But what exactly do we mean when we use this concept? What was its original meaning when Max Weber introduced it? And can the conventional meaning or Max Weber's view really be defended, given the present state of knowledge about the history of religion? This book is an attempt to divest this concept of its enduring enchantment. The first chapters of the book deal with the three empirical disciplines history, psychology and sociology of religion to develop an understanding of religion that then lays the groundwork for what is presented in chapter 4, namely the most thorough study of Weber's views on disenchantment that has ever been undertaken. It turns out that Weber's use was highly ambiguous and that his grand narrative leading from the prophets of ancient Judaism to the crisis of meaning on the eve of the First World War collapses when we recognize this ambiguity. This makes it possible to construct an alternative that takes into account the dynamics of ever new sacralizations, their normative evaluation in the light of the values of a universalist morality and the dangers of the misuse of religion in connection with the formation of power. This book constitutes a challenge - for believers and non-believers alike"--

This major study reassesses the work of the American pragmatist George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), which had a significant impact in fields ranging from metaphysics and ethics to sociology and social psychology. The work of American pragmatist George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) had a strong influence in fields ranging from metaphysics and ethics to sociology and social psychology. In this book, Hans Joas interweaves Mead's political and intellectual biography with the development of his theories. The key concept of the study is "practical intersubjectivity," a term Joas introduces to characterize the link implicit in Mead's work between a theory of intersubjectivity and a theory of praxis. Throughout the book, Joas stresses the practical, social, and political nature of Mead's work. Besides comparing Mead to the other American pragmatists, Joas discusses the relation between Mead's thought and that of such Europeans as Habermas, Apel, Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Piaget. Joas's revisionist portrait of Mead as a socially engaged intellectual, with its emphasis on his relevance for contemporary philosophy and social science, has been a key factor in the revival of interest in Mead. The author's new preface includes an update on pragmatism studies in general and on Mead studies in particular.

A Contemporary Re-Examination of His Thought

G. H. Mead

d. Entwicklung d. Werkes von George Herbert Mead

Praktische Intersubjektivität

Robert N. Bellah

This book makes the bold claim that intellectual sophistication was born worldwide during the middle centuries of the first millennium bce. From Axial Age thinkers we inherited a sense of the world as a place not just to experience but to investigate, envision, and alter. A variety of utopian visions emerged and led to both reform and repression.

The Axial Age and Its Consequences

Peter Vogt

Beiträge zum Werk Reinhart Kosellecks

Begriffene Geschichte

Robert B. Pippin

der Idealismus als Diskurs der Moderne

Die Verwirklichung der Freiheit

Daniel R. Huebner

George Herbert Mead is widely considered one of the most influential American philosophers of the twentieth century, and this edited collection shows that his work remains vibrant and relevant to many areas of scholarly inquiry today. The sixteen contributions provide detailed analyses of Mead s importance to innovative fields of scholarship, including cognitive science, environmental studies, democratic epistemology, narratological and social ethics, non-teleological historiography, and the history of the natural and social sciences. The volume makes a coherent statement that places Mead in dialogue with current research, pushing these domains of scholarship forward while also revitalizing the growing literature on an author who has an ongoing major influence on sociology, psychology, and philosophy."

The Timeliness of George Herbert Mead

Rising concerns among scholars about the intellectual and cultural foundations of democracy have led to a revival of interest in the American philosophical tradition of pragmatism. In this book, Hans Joas shows how pragmatism can link divergent intellectual efforts to understand the social contexts of human knowledge, individual freedom, and democratic culture. Along with pragmatism's impact on American sociology and social research from 1895 to the 1940s, Joas traces its reception by French and German traditions during this century. He explores the influences of pragmatism—often misunderstood—on Emile Durkheim's sociology of knowledge, and on German thought, with particularly enlightening references to its appropriation by Nazism and its rejection by neo-Marxism. He also explores new currents of social theory in the work of Habermas, Castoriadis, Giddens, and Alexander, fashioning a bridge between Continental thought, American philosophy, and contemporary sociology; he shows how the misapprehension and neglect of pragmatism has led to systematic deficiencies in contemporary social theory. From this skillful historical and theoretical analysis, Joas creates a powerful case for the enduring legacy of Peirce, James, Dewey, and Mead for social theorists today.

Hans Joas

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