From Alienation to Forms of Life: The Critical Theory of Rahel Jaeggi

A leading scholar of Continental philosophy, Rahel Jaeggi reads key concepts of Hegelian-Marxist social philosophy through the lens of contemporary German and Anglo-American thinkers. This thorough introduction to her work assesses and critiques her efforts to revitalize critical theory.
The author of numerous works in social and political philosophy, Jaeggi reclaims key categories in the lexicon of Left Hegelian thought and applies them to a significant source of inspiration for her work: phenomenology. In engaging with her substantive corpus, the contributors to this volume grapple witih Jaeggi's rich and astute readings of the experience of alienation--of being "intractable" or not "available" to ourselves; with her rendering of "immanent and internal critique"; and with her success in navigating Haerbamisian-Kantian transcendentalism and Honnethian-Hegelian ethical substantialism, in an effort to pave the way toward a normatively guided critical theory of society. The result of this exchange is a deeper underdstanding of how Jaeggi's interpretations of Adorno, Heidegger, Tugendhat, Dewey, Frankfurt, and Taylor opens new, productive avenues for discourse.
Structured for classroom use and featuring essays by leading English-language scholars of phenomenology and Continental and existential philosophy, this critical introduction to Rahel Jaeggi is an insightful and generative confrontation with the most recent transformation of Frankfurt School-inspired social and philosophical critical theory.