Habermas A Biography

'Few would contest the verdict that Habermas has achieved-in both his philosophical work and in his role as a public intellectual-a place of enduring significance that surpasses that of any other thinker in our time. The definitive new biography by Stefan Müller-Doohm... lays out the evidence for this conclusion with great care and enormous sympathy for its protagonist.'
The Nation
 
Heidegger's lapidary biographical summation, "The man was born, he worked, and then died," may have been appropriate for Aristotle, but is woefully inadequate for the philosopher who is arguably our era's version of the great Greek polymath, Jürgen Habermas. For not only is he still very much alive and producing new work at a vigorous pace, but it is also the case that his voluminous contributions to philosophy, sociology, political theory, and cultural criticism demand to be read in the context of his remarkable career as a committed public intellectual. As his masterful biography of Adorno already demonstrated, Stefan Müller-Doohm shows himself to be fully up to the task of discerning figures in the intricately woven carpet of a major thinker's life and work.
Martin Jay, University of California Berkeley