SOURCE: A review of Justification and Application, in The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. XLVIII, No. 3, March, 1995, pp. 657-58.

In the review below, Misgeld describes the themes of Justification and Application.

In all of his works Habermas pursues the elucidation of the modern age ("modernity") and of the principles and processes constitutive of it. The affirmation of modernity and its critique are integral to the elucidation. [Justification and Application] also pursues these themes. It is a collection of four recently published essays, all dealing with the issue of ethics, and concludes with a long and informative interview. There is also a lengthy, useful introduction by the translator. The translation is adequate, even good. The theme of the essays is the possibility of a "discourse theory of morality." This theory is largely a form of deontological cognitivist metaethics defending a "universalistic concept of morality." The essays fit together thematically and...