Two countervailing trends mark the intellectual tenor of our age the
spread of naturalistic worldviews and religious orthodoxies. Advances in
biogenetics, brain research, and robotics are clearing the way for the
penetration of an objective scientific self-understanding of persons
into everyday life. For philosophy, this trend is associated with the
challenge of scientific naturalism. At the same time, we are witnessing
an unexpected revitalization of religious traditions and the
politicization of religious communities across the world. From a
philosophical perspective, this revival of religious energies poses the
challenge of a fundamentalist critique of the principles underlying the
modern Wests postmetaphysical understanding of itself.
The tension between naturalism and religion is the central theme of this
major new book by Jrgen Habermas. On the one hand he argues for an
appropriate naturalistic understanding of cultural evolution that does
justice to the normative character of the human mind. On the other hand,
he calls for an appropriate interpretation of the secularizing effects
of a process of social and cultural rationalization increasingly
denounced by the champions of religious orthodoxies as a historical
development peculiar to the West. These reflections on the enduring
importance of religion and the limits of secularism under conditions of
postmetaphysical reason set the scene for an extended treatment the
political significance of religious tolerance and for a fresh
contribution to current debates on cosmopolitanism and a constitution
for international society.
