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This book is the first full-length study of the ongoing debate over the status of our "disenchanted" world-a world stripped of mysterious and supernatural forces by the demythologizing power of reason and modern science. It draws together for the first time the writings of various theorists on this theme, such as Georg Lukacs, Theodor Adorno, and Jürgen Habermas, providing a coherent overview of an evolving dialogue, as well as Germain's own evaluation of the disenchantment problematic.
"In the worldwide ecological crisis facing us today, hardly an issue demands our attention more urgently than the relation between modern civilization and nature. Germain boldly tackles this issue in its broad political and philosophical ramifications. Focusing on the Weberian notion of 'disenchantment,' his book offers a detailed genealogy of the steadily deepening rift between mind and matter, between modern technology and mastery over nature. An elegantly written study addressed to and deserving a wide audience." — Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame
"The philosophical critique is excellent, of the highest order." — Philip Green, Smith College
Preface
Introduction
Part One. The Outward Journey
I The Setting
The Turn Toward Epistemology
Positivism and Anti-Positivism
The Nietzschean Critique
Summary and Conclusion
II The Disenchantment Thesis
The Weberian Synthesis
The Disenchantment of Nature
The Disenchantment of the World
Lukács and Instrumental Rationality
Systems Theory
Summary and Conclusion
Part Two. The Journey Home
III Modernity Vindicated
Blumenberg and the Legitimacy of Modernity
Habermas: Early Works
Habermas: The Theory of Communicative Action
Summary and Conclusion
IV Modernity Reconsidered
Habermas Appraised
Adorno Revisited
Merleau-Ponty: From Perception to Ontology
Summary and Conclusion
V Embodied Politics
The Problem with 'Politics'
Embodied Politics
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography