Generally accepted to be the leader of the second generation of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, Jürgen Habermas is a prominent German public intellectual whose interests range from sociology to political science. Indeed, Habermas subscribes to Karl Popper's suggestion that "disciplines are historical accidents." Habermas would characterize himself as a thinker rather than as a person of action, and makes a distinction between scholarly and political discourse.

While he is considered the heir apparent to the Frankfurt School of critical theorists--Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and peripherally Walter Benjamin--Habermas's ideas are markedly distinct from all of them. In particular, he is at odds with Adorno, who insisted that there are no ultimate foundations for knowledge and values. In contrast, Habermas contends that the problem of foundations can be resolved, and he has been concerned with providing a normative basis for the philosophical underpinnings...