Rainer Forst
Biographic Data
| ID | 496609 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rainer Forst |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rainer |
| FAMILY NAME | Forst |
| SIGNATURE | FORST R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Goethe University Frankfurt |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8245-5476 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 67 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 217 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 65 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Toward a Critical Theory of Trust
This paper lays some groundwork for a critical theory of trust. It challenges widespread assumptions in trust research according to which “thick” forms of trust emerge in socially and culturally homogeneous communities, which regard trust and conflict as opposing terms, or that view trust generally as a value. The paper suggests a distinction between a general, non-normative concept and various normative conceptions of trust, depending on context…
Who is Haunted by the Shadow of God? Dialectical Notes on Michael Rosen's Narrative of (Failed) Secularization
In The Shadow of God, Michael Rosen argues that modern moral philosophy in the tradition of German Idealism is profoundly shaped by religious views these thinkers could not overcome. However, a closer look at Rosen’s critique of Kant’s and Kantian conceptions of morality raises the possibility that Rosen’s view may itself be haunted by the shadow of God. In particular, Rosen appears to believe that a moral imperative of respect for human dignity …
Democratic faith. A philosophical profile of Richard J. Bernstein
1. I first met Richard Bernstein in Frankfurt in the spring of 1988, where he was a visiting professor of philosophy while I was a student. I remember as truly eye-opening the seminar he taught together with Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel and the one he gave by himself on the authors he discussed in The New Constellation (1991). From that time on, this marvelous Geist became an important mentor for me and a dear friend, and I will always be g…
The rule of unreason: Analyzing (anti‐)democratic regression
In contemporary debates about the crisis of democracy, it is often said that we are living in a time of an anti-democratic regression, and insofar as it is a phenomenon that develops within democratic systems, this is also called "democratic regression," as Armin Schäfer and Michael Zürn (2021) do.1 I think this addresses a crucial dimension of the critical analysis of our present, but I also see the need for further conceptual reflection and cla…
The rational critique of social unreason. On critical theory in the Frankfurt tradition
By "critical theory" in a general sense, we mean a unity of philosophical reflection and social scientific analysis informed by an interest in emancipation; all critical theories methodologically and normatively aim at uncovering forms of social domination and inquire into the possibilities of overcoming them. Critical theory in the tradition of what has been called the "Frankfurt School," however, means something more specific: It develops a his…
"Poder democrático e "fatos alternativos
O presente texto apresenta uma reflexão acerca do conceito de verdade em relação com o ideal de democracia, sobretudo em consideração às realidades contemporâneas. Desse modo, o texto é subdividido em seções que procuram contemplar alguns elementos fundamentais dessa relação para o século XXI, a saber: distintas compreensões sobre o conceito de verdade; o ideal de democracia e os princípios que devem orientar a esfera pública democrática; a reali…
Critical Political Theory
Critical political theory
Knowing What Justice Means and Being Committed to It: Remarks on Allen Buchanan's Analysis of Conservative Factual Beliefs
Allen Buchanan argues that a particular set of false factual beliefs, especially when part of a comprehensive ideology, can lead persons to develop ‘morally conservative’ convictions that stand in the way of realising justice even though these persons have a ‘firm grasp of correct principles of justice and a robust commitment to their realisation’. In my remarks, I raise some questions concerning the core argument: How ‘firm’ can a grasp of princ…
Debating the dimensions: Amy Allen, Rainer Forst and Isaac Ariail Reed in dialogue-review of The Four Dimensions of Power by Mark Haugaard
In this article Amy Allen, Rainer Forst and Isaac Reed debate the four dimensions of power, as framed by Mark Haugaard, in The Four Dimensions of Power, and Haugaard responds. This discussion involves the following: the relationship between agency and authority; ideology and acquiescence; power-over, power-to and power-with; structural constraint; bias and exclusion; the distinction between deep and shallow conflicts; the concept of reification; …
The autonomy of autonomy: On Jürgen Habermas's Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie
Major books like Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie (AGP)1 start from and develop a single (although complex) idea. This idea has been present in Habermas's work for some time. It can be traced back to the core project of the Frankfurt School, in the tradition of Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment and Horkheimer's Critique of Instrumental Reason, of reconstructing the genesis of and criticizing one-sided forms of rationality tha…
Symposium on Jürgen Habermas, Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie
Chapter 2 The Justification of Progress and the Progress of Justification
Two bad halves don't make a whole: On the crisis of democracy
Human Rights in Context
In the first part of the comments, Andrea Sangiovanni’s “broad view” of human rights is analysed and criticized for being too broad. It does not provide a sufficient normative ground for the core concept of human rights, and its account of constructing more concrete conceptions of human rights is too indeterminate with respect to both substance and procedure. In the second part, an alternative, discourse-theoretical view is outlined.
Committed critical theory: Some thoughts on Stephen White’s A Democratic Bearing
In this article, I comment on Stephen White’s version of critical theory as presented in A Democratic Bearing. I specifically focus on his version of the “colonization thesis” and the social analysis this leads to. I also scrutinize his normative framework, especially the claim of non-foundationalism and the difference between his view and Kantian discourse theory
Noumenal power revisited: Reply to Critics
In this reply to critiques by Albena Azmanova, Pablo Gilabert, Mark Haugaard, Clarissa Rile Hayward, Matthias Kettner, Steven Lukes, and Simon Susen, Rainer Forst explains and expands upon his theory of 'noumenal power.' In particular, he stresses the non-normative character of the approach and clarifies how the account of the exercise of power as working through 'giving' reasons also includes non-reflexive and non-transparent forms of producing …
Religion and Toleration from the Enlightenment to the Post-Secular Era
This chapter addresses the classical question of the relationship between enlightenment and religion. In doing so, the chapter compares Jürgen Habermas's thought to that of Pierre Bayle and Immanuel Kant. For, although Habermas undoubtedly stands in a tradition founded by Bayle and Kant, he develops a number of important orientations within this tradition and has changed his position in his recent work. The chapter studies this change to understa…
Justice after Marx
This chapter considers the relevance of Marx for contemporary philosophical thinking about justice. It asserts that Marx has provided essential insights into the correct understanding of social and political justice. At the same time, the chapter points out some problems and ambivalences in his theory. The primary concern of this chapter is that Marx can save us from adopting a one-sided and truncated view of justice, but that his thought also in…
Political Liberalism: A Kantian View
This article suggests a Kantian reading of Rawls’s Political Liberalism. As much as Rawls distanced himself from a presentation of his theory in terms of a comprehensive Kantian moral doctrine, we ought to read it as a noncomprehensive Kantian moral-political theory. According to the latter approach, the liberal conception of justice is compatible with a plurality of comprehensive doctrines as long as they share the independently defined and grou…
Toleration and its Paradoxes: A Tribute to John Horton
A Critical Theory of Human Rights—Some Groundwork
Human rights are a complex phenomenon, comprising an array of different aspects: moral, legal, political, and social. A philosophical account of human rights must integrate each of these aspects in the right way. In this chapter, Forst sketches a critical theory of human rights as an alternative to mainstream accounts. His own account begins from the oft- neglected social aspect—the perspective of participants in social struggles against exploita…
Normativity and Power: Analyzing Social Orders of Justification
Humans are justificatory beings—they offer, demand, and require justifications. The rules and institutions we follow rest on narratives that have evolved over time and, taken together, constitute a dynamic and tension-laden normative order. This book presents a new approach to critical theory. Each chapter reflects on the basic principles that guide our normative thinking. The book's argument goes beyond obsolete “ideal” and “realist” theories an…
Noumenal Alienation: Rousseau, Kant and Marx on the Dialectics of Self-Determination
This article argues that alienation (as Entfremdung ) should be understood as a particular form of individual and social heteronomy that can only be overcome by a dialectical combination of individual and collective autonomy, recovering a deontological sense of normative authority. If we think about alienation in Kantian terms, the main source of alienation is a denial of standing or, in the extreme, losing a sense of oneself as a rational normat…
The Geist of an impossible conference
Noumenal Power
I N political or social philosophy, we speak about power all the time.Yet the meaning of this important concept is rarely made explicit, especially in the context of normative discussions. 1But as with many other concepts, once one considers it more closely, fundamental questions arise, such as whether a power relation is necessarily a relation of subordination and domination, a view that makes it difficult to identify legitimate forms of the exe…
The Basic Right to Justification: Towards a Constructivist Conception of Human Rights
The Limits of Toleration
First Things First: Redistribution, Recognition and Justification
This article analyses the debate between Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth in a dialectical fashion. Their controversy about how to construct a critical theory of justice is not just one about the proper balance between `redistribution' and `recognition', it also involves basic questions of social ontology. Differing both from Fraser's `twodimensional' view of `participatory parity' and from Honneth's `monistic' theory of recognition, the article arg…
Power and reason, justice and domination: A Conversation
Through an email conversation between Allen, Forst and Haugaard, this article explores the relationship between the dyads power and reason, justice and domination. In much of the literature reason is considered either a mode of emancipation from power (Lukes) or, conversely, a subtle ruse of domination (Foucault). Here it is argued that reasoning is intrinsic to political power, with both the potential for power as justice (Arendt), and for power…
Noumenal Alienation: Rousseau, Kant and Marx on the Dialectics of Self-Determination
This article argues that alienation (as Entfremdung ) should be understood as a particular form of individual and social heteronomy that can only be overcome by a dialectical combination of individual and collective autonomy, recovering a deontological sense of normative authority. If we think about alienation in Kantian terms, the main source of alienation is a denial of standing or, in the extreme, losing a sense of oneself as a rational normat…
Radical Justice: On Iris Marion Young's Critique of the “Distributive Paradigm
The ground of critique: On the concept of human dignity in social orders of justification
In the practice of social criticism, the concept of human dignity has played and still plays an important role. In philosophical debates, however, we find widely divergent accounts of that concept, ranging from views based on a conception of human needs to religious approaches trying to explain the ‘inviolability’ of the person. The view presented here reconstructs the basic claim of human dignity historically and normatively as resting on the mo…
The Power of Critique
Foundations of a Theory of Multicultural Justice
The rule of unreason: Analyzing (anti‐)democratic regression
In contemporary debates about the crisis of democracy, it is often said that we are living in a time of an anti-democratic regression, and insofar as it is a phenomenon that develops within democratic systems, this is also called "democratic regression," as Armin Schäfer and Michael Zürn (2021) do.1 I think this addresses a crucial dimension of the critical analysis of our present, but I also see the need for further conceptual reflection and cla…
Debating the dimensions: Amy Allen, Rainer Forst and Isaac Ariail Reed in dialogue-review of The Four Dimensions of Power by Mark Haugaard
In this article Amy Allen, Rainer Forst and Isaac Reed debate the four dimensions of power, as framed by Mark Haugaard, in The Four Dimensions of Power, and Haugaard responds. This discussion involves the following: the relationship between agency and authority; ideology and acquiescence; power-over, power-to and power-with; structural constraint; bias and exclusion; the distinction between deep and shallow conflicts; the concept of reification; …
Noumenal power revisited: Reply to Critics
In this reply to critiques by Albena Azmanova, Pablo Gilabert, Mark Haugaard, Clarissa Rile Hayward, Matthias Kettner, Steven Lukes, and Simon Susen, Rainer Forst explains and expands upon his theory of 'noumenal power.' In particular, he stresses the non-normative character of the approach and clarifies how the account of the exercise of power as working through 'giving' reasons also includes non-reflexive and non-transparent forms of producing …
The Right to Justification by Rainer Forst
What is important in theorizing tolerance today
Two bad halves don't make a whole: On the crisis of democracy
The rational critique of social unreason. On critical theory in the Frankfurt tradition
By "critical theory" in a general sense, we mean a unity of philosophical reflection and social scientific analysis informed by an interest in emancipation; all critical theories methodologically and normatively aim at uncovering forms of social domination and inquire into the possibilities of overcoming them. Critical theory in the tradition of what has been called the "Frankfurt School," however, means something more specific: It develops a his…
The autonomy of autonomy: On Jürgen Habermas's Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie
Major books like Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie (AGP)1 start from and develop a single (although complex) idea. This idea has been present in Habermas's work for some time. It can be traced back to the core project of the Frankfurt School, in the tradition of Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment and Horkheimer's Critique of Instrumental Reason, of reconstructing the genesis of and criticizing one-sided forms of rationality tha…
A critical theory of politics: Grounds, method and aims. Reply to Simone Chambers, Stephen White and Lea Ypi
In this article, I address the various objections raised by Simone Chambers, Stephen White and Lea Ypi concerning my version of a critical theory of politics. I explain the basic assumptions that inform my account of a critique of relations of justification, its particular method and aims
Os limites da tolerância
Este artigo apresenta os elementos constitutivos do conceito de tolerância e discute duas concepções diferentes do termo, como permissão e como respeito moral, que expressam modos diversos de demarcar os limites da tolerância. A tolerância é apresentada como um conceito que, para ganhar algum conteúdo, depende normativamente de um direito à justificação baseado na idéia de um uso público da razão segundo o qual as práticas e as instituições polít…
Who is Haunted by the Shadow of God? Dialectical Notes on Michael Rosen's Narrative of (Failed) Secularization
In The Shadow of God, Michael Rosen argues that modern moral philosophy in the tradition of German Idealism is profoundly shaped by religious views these thinkers could not overcome. However, a closer look at Rosen’s critique of Kant’s and Kantian conceptions of morality raises the possibility that Rosen’s view may itself be haunted by the shadow of God. In particular, Rosen appears to believe that a moral imperative of respect for human dignity …
The Injustice of Justice: Normative Dialectics According to Ibsen, Cavell and Adorno (translated by Mario Wenning)
How (Not) to Speak About Identity: The concept of the person in a theory of justice
How (Not) to Speak About Identity: The concept of the person in a theory of justice
Situations of the self: Reflections on Seyla Benhabib's version of critical theory
Foundations of a Theory of Multicultural Justice
The Basic Right to Justification: Towards a Constructivist Conception of Human Rights
Towards a Critical Theory of Transnational Justice
This paper argues for a conception of transnational justice that provides an alternative to globalist and statist views. In light of an analysis of the transnational context of justice, a critical theory is suggested that addresses the multiple relations of injustice and domination to be found in this context. Based on a universal, individual right to reciprocal and general justification, this theory argues for justifiable social and political re…
Tolerance as a Virtue of Justice
This article argues that the civic virtue of tolerance has to be understood as a virtue of justice. Based on an analysis of the concept of toleration and its paradoxes, it shows that toleration is a 'normatively dependent concept' that needs to take recourse to a conception of justice in order to solve these paradoxes. At the center of this conception of justice lies a principle of reciprocal and general justification with the help of which a dis…
Zu einer kritischen Theorie transnationaler Gerechtigkeit
A Tolerant Republic?
There are several reasons that account for the difficulty of giving a clear and sufficient answer to the broad question of whether the Federal Republic of Germany is a "tolerant republic." One problem is that the very concept of toleration is elusive and open to a number of—at times even contradictory—interpretations. Furthermore, an answer to that question very much depends on what one primarily looks at: constitutional principles, legal and pol…
The Limits of Toleration
Autonomy and the Challenges to Liberalism: New Essays
In recent years the concepts of individual autonomy and political liberalism have been the subjects of intense debate, but these discussions have occurred largely within separate academic disciplines. Autonomy and the Challenges to Liberalism contains essays devoted to foundational questions regarding both the notion of the autonomous self and the nature and justification of liberalism. Written by leading figures in moral, legal and political the…
Justice, Morality and Power in the Global Context
Political Liberty: Integrating Five Conceptions of Autonomy
1. Although "liberty" today is generally recognized as a fundamental criterion for the legitimacy of a society's basic institutional structure, disputes over its content continue unabated. Within the history of political philosophy as well as in contemporary debates, a wide variety of theories provide competing accounts, ranging from republicanism to Marxism, from libertarianism to various forms of liberalism ("perfectionist" or "political"). In …
Moral Autonomy and the Autonomy of Morality: Toward a Theory of Normativity After Kant
The Injustice of Justice: Normative Dialectics According to Ibsen, Cavell and Adorno (translated by Mario Wenning)
First Things First: Redistribution, Recognition and Justification
This article analyses the debate between Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth in a dialectical fashion. Their controversy about how to construct a critical theory of justice is not just one about the proper balance between `redistribution' and `recognition', it also involves basic questions of social ontology. Differing both from Fraser's `twodimensional' view of `participatory parity' and from Honneth's `monistic' theory of recognition, the article arg…
Radical Justice: On Iris Marion Young's Critique of the “Distributive Paradigm
Toleration and Its Limits: Nomos Xlviii
Os limites da tolerância
Este artigo apresenta os elementos constitutivos do conceito de tolerância e discute duas concepções diferentes do termo, como permissão e como respeito moral, que expressam modos diversos de demarcar os limites da tolerância. A tolerância é apresentada como um conceito que, para ganhar algum conteúdo, depende normativamente de um direito à justificação baseado na idéia de um uso público da razão segundo o qual as práticas e as instituições polít…
The Justification of Human Rights and the Basic Right to Justification: A Reflexive Approach
First Things First: Redistribution, Recognition And Justification
The ground of critique: On the concept of human dignity in social orders of justification
In the practice of social criticism, the concept of human dignity has played and still plays an important role. In philosophical debates, however, we find widely divergent accounts of that concept, ranging from views based on a conception of human needs to religious approaches trying to explain the ‘inviolability’ of the person. The view presented here reconstructs the basic claim of human dignity historically and normatively as resting on the mo…
Kritik der Rechtfertigungsverhältnisse: Perspektiven einer kritischen Theorie der Politik
The Power of Critique
“Reasonable” versus “True,” or the Morality of Worldviews
John Rawls claims that his idea of “justice as fairness” is a “freestanding” conception: it is supposed to “move entirely within the domain of the political” and “leave philosophy as it is.” The goal and feasibility of this strategy of avoidance depend on how we understand the term “political.” Rawls uses it in the fi rst place to specify the object domain of a political theory that deals with the institutional frame and basic structure of a (mod…
The Justification of Human Rights and the Basic Right to Justification. A Reflexive Approach
Philosophy (54 works) · Political science (52 works) · Law (49 works) · Sociology (49 works) · Epistemology (44 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (41 works) · Politics (36 works) · Philosophy (25 works) · Law (23 works) · Economic Justice (20 works)