Director of the Research Centre Co-Director of the Cluster Initiative Director of the Leibniz Prize Research Group Permanent Fellow at Director of the Justitia Center for Advanced Studies Course Executive Master in Political Theory |
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Office hours: To arrange an appointment, please send an email to forst[at]em.uni-frankfurt.de |
Goethe-University Frankfurt Building "Normative Ordnungen" |
Office hours for students |
News
On the occasion of the publication of Rainer Forst's latest
book in English, the conference “The Noumenal Republic: Author meets
Critics" took place at the London School of Economics on November 7 and
8, 2024. Forst discussed his new texts with Lea Ypi, Howard Williams and
Andrea Sangiovanni, among others.
You can find the full program here.
On October 11, 2024, the workshop “The Power of Justification: Thinking Reason and Politics with Rainer Forst” took place at the Research Center Normative Orders on the occasion of Rainer Forst's 60th birthday. In the three panels “Challenges to Democracy”, “Justification as a Basic Concept of Critical Theory” and “The Foundation of Morality”, various aspects of Forst's theory were critically discussed.
You can find the full program here.
Rainer Forst's latest volume was recently published in English
translation by Polity. It is entitled “The Noumenal Republic: Critical
Constructivism After Kant” and is available for free download with Open
Access. In this book, Forst develops a critical theory after Kant, based
on the assumption that all people are born with equal dignity and equal
rights. This statement appears to be both normatively irrefutable and
empirically incorrect; reality disproves it anew every day - and thus
confirms its significance. The truth of this principle can be clarified
philosophically by referring back to Kant's idea of a “noumenal
republic”, in which every person is subject to the general law, which
they also co-construct as legislators. A critical analysis of society
and politics must show the extent to which reality makes a mockery of
this. Forst's critical theory aims to prevent these perspectives from
falling apart into a distant ideal and a diagnosis of hopelessness.
Find the book available for download here:
A new article by Rainer Forst was recently published in
Constellations. It is entitled "The rational critique of social
unreason. On critical theory in the Frankfurt tradition" and deals with
the concepts of reason and unreason in the critical theory of the
Frankfurt School. Forst argues that the Frankfurt School is
characterised by a reflexive, systematic rational critique of existing
forms of social unreason, combining social scientific analysis with
normative reflection. A convincing continuation of this critical project
should thus relate to the practice of justification, and thus
ultimately to the principle of critique itself.
Find the full research paper here: