9780674988712

067498871X

9780674737754

067473775X

"This book was originally published as Kritik von Lebensformen (c) Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2014 "--Title page verso.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record.

Introduction: Against "ethical abstinence"

Part I. An ensemble of practices: forms of life as social formations: What is a form of life?

Form of life: concept and phenomenon

Duration, depth, scope

A modular concept of forms of life

Forms of life as inert ensembles of practices

What are (social) practices?

The interconnected character of practices

The moment of inertia

Practice, criticism, reflection

Part II. Solutions to problems: forms of life as normatively constituted formations: The normativity of forms of life

Norms and normativity

Modes of normativity

Three types of norm justification

"Failure to correspond to its concept"

Forms of life as problem-solving entities

What are problems?

Given or made? The problem with problems

Attempts at problem-solving: Hegel's theory of the family

Crises of problem-solving

Second order problems

Part III. Forms of criticism: What is internal criticism?

External and internal criticism

The strategy of internal criticism

Advantages and limits of internal criticism

"To find the new world through criticism of the old one": immanent criticism

Criticism of a new type

The strategy of immanent criticism

Potentials and difficulties

Part IV. The dynamics of crisis and the rationality of social change: Successful and failed learning processes

Change, learning, development, progress

Are forms of life capable of learning?

Deficient learning processes

Why does history matter?

Crisis-induced transformations: Dewey, MacIntyre, Hegel

Social change as experimental problem-solving

The dynamics of traditions

History as a dialectical learning process

Problem or contradiction?

Problems as indeterminacy

Crisis as a break in continuity

Crisis as dialectical contradiction

The problem with contradiction

The dynamics of learning processes

Problem-solving as an experimental learning process

The dynamics of traditions

"The source of progress and of degeneration"

A dialectical-pragmatist understanding of learning processes

Conclusion: A critical theory of criticism of forms of life.

Social sciences > Philosophy.

Social history > Philosophy.

Social change > Moral and ethical aspects.