Contexts of Justice, highly acclaimed when it was published in Germany, provides a significant new intervention into the important debate between communitarianism and liberalism. Rainer Forst argues for a theory of "contexts of justice" that leads beyond the narrow confines of this debate as it has been understood until now and posits the possibility of a new conception of social and political justice. This book brings refreshing clarity to a complex topic as it provides a synthesis of traditions and theories that leads to a truly original approach.
Forst makes a four-part...

Die Frage nach der gegenwärtigen Lage der Sozialphilosophie und den Konturen einer kritischen Gesellschaftstheorie im Anschluß an die Tradition der Frankfurter Schule ist heute Gegenstand einer internationalen und interdisziplinären Debatte. Mit der Einführung der Kategorie des Kampfes um Anerkennung durch Axel Honneth hat sie vielfältige neue Impulse erhalten. Danach stehen diejenigen gesellschaftlichen Fehlentwicklungen und Pathologien im Vordergrund, die für soziale Mißachtung und die systematische Verletzung von Ansprüchen auf gelingende Identitätsentwicklung verantwortlich sind....

Kann es im Zeitalter des Pluralismus noch gelingen, eine hinreichend komplexe Theorie politischer und sozialer Gerechtigkeit mit Hilfe eines einzigen normativen Grundsatzes zu begrnden? Dieses Buch unternimmt einen solchen Versuch, indem es die wesentlichen Elemente einer "autonomen" Konstruktion der Gerechtigkeit zusammentrgt. Grundlegend ist dabei ein individuelles, moralisches Grund-Recht auf Rechtfertigung, das in den Kapiteln des ersten Teils in moralphilosophischer Perspektive expliziert wird. Im zweiten Teil werden dann die zentralen Bestandteile politischer und sozialer Gerechtigkeit...

Rainer Forst analysiert in seiner Studie die Debatten zwischen liberalen und kommunitaristischen Theorien der Gerechtigkeit in bezug auf vier zentrale Probleme der politischen Philosophie: (1) der Frage der Konstitution des "Selbst"; (2) der Neutralität allgemeiner Rechts- und Gerechtigkeitsprinzipien gegenüber Konzeptionen des Guten; (3) der integrativen Kraft posttraditionaler und demokratischer

Rainer Forst develops a critical theory capable of deciphering the deficits and potentials inherent in contemporary political reality. This calls for a perspective which is immanent to social and political practices and at the same time transcends them. Forst regards society as a whole as an 'order of justification' comprising complexes of different norms referring to institutions and corresponding practices of justification. The task of a 'critique of relations of justification', therefore, is to analyse such legitimations with regard to their validity and genesis and to explore the social...

Rainer Forst develops a critical theory capable of deciphering the deficits and potentials inherent in contemporary political reality. This calls for a perspective which is immanent to social and political practices and at the same time transcends them. Forst regards society as a whole as an 'order of justification' comprising complexes of different norms referring to institutions and corresponding practices of justification. The task of a 'critique of relations of justification', therefore, is to analyse such legitimations with regard to their validity and genesis and to explore the social...

Over the past 15 years, Rainer Forst has developed a fundamental research programme within the tradition of Frankfurt School Critical Theory. The core of this programme is a moral account of the basic right of justification that humans owe to one another as rational beings. This account is put to work by Forst in articulating - both historically and philosophically - the contexts and form of justice and of toleration. The result is a powerful theoretical framework within which to address issues such as transnational justice and multicultural toleration. In this volume, Forst sets out his...

We invoke the ideal of tolerance in response to conflict, but what does it mean to answer conflict with a call for tolerance? Is tolerance a way of resolving conflicts or a means of sustaining them? Does it transform conflicts into productive tensions, or does it perpetuate underlying power relations? To what extent does tolerance hide its involvement with power and act as a form of depoliticization?

Wendy Brown and Rainer Forst debate the uses and misuses of tolerance, an exchange that highlights the fundamental differences in their critical practice despite a number of political...

We invoke the ideal of tolerance in response to conflict, but what does it mean to answer conflict with a call for tolerance? Is tolerance a way of resolving conflicts or a means of sustaining them? Does it transform conflicts into productive tensions, or does it perpetuate underlying power relations? To what extent does tolerance hide its involvement with power and act as a form of depoliticization?

Wendy Brown and Rainer Forst debate the uses and misuses of tolerance, an exchange that highlights the fundamental differences in their critical practice despite a number of political...