The essays in this book - all of them published here for the first time - provide along-overdue critical discussion of Jürgen Habermas's cascade of ideas. These are topped off by afreshet of original Habermas: in the final essay, he replies to the criticism developed in thepreceding contributions and to other recent assessments of his work, provides an importantclarification of his earlier views, and reveals the direction of his current thought.Each essayprobes a particular theme in Habermas's work, and each presents both an exposition and a critique.Among the subjects covered are Habermas's theory of knowledge-constitutive interests, his account oflanguage and truth, his "overcoming" of hermeneutics, the concept of universal pragmatics, theorientation of his thought relative to the Marxist tradition, and his project of analyzing thecrisis tendencies of capitalism within the context of evolutionary theory.The contributors arephilosophers and social theorists of international standing, most of them affiliated with German,English, and American universities. They are Agnes Heller, Rudiger Bubner, Thomas McCarthy, HenningOttmann, Mary Hesse, Steven Lukes, Anthony Giddens, Michael Schmid, Andrew Arato, and the editors.The editors have also contributed a substantial introduction outlining the central contours ofHabermas's work and summarizing the main arguments of the essays.John B. Thompson is a Fellow ofJesus College, Cambridge, and David Held is Lecturer in Politics, University of York.