The Divided West (Charting the Core Ideas of 21st-Century International Politics)

Jürgen HabermasShanghai Translation Publishing House2019

Rating 3.6
Word count
109K words
Chapters
21
Series
The Divided West
ISBN
9787532779680

Tags

Politics and Military Politics PhilosopherInternational RelationsInternational LawPolitical PhilosophyHabermasGlobal CitizenEuropean Integration

Summary

The Divided West gathers eight essays and several interviews written by Jürgen Habermas, the German philosopher and leading figure of the second generation of the Frankfurt School, in the wake of the September 11 attacks of 2001. Translated into Chinese by Yu Zhejun and published in Shanghai Translation Publishing House's Classics of Translation series, the book takes the 9/11 attacks and the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, launched without UN Security Council approval, as its starting point and poses a sharp question: what is it that is really tearing the West apart? Habermas's answer is unexpected: international terrorism is not the main cause; the real problem is the policy of the US government at the time. That policy held international law in contempt and acted outside the United Nations, and behind its unilateralism lay a political-philosophical stance that substituted a nation's own morality and ethics for universal rights, thus falling into an old-imperial "false universalism." In Habermas's view, this rift runs through several layers: within Europe, founding EU member states and newer entrants move at different speeds, as the differing outlooks of Germany and Poland illustrate; at the transatlantic level, it appears as a divergence between Europe and the United States; and even within the United States itself, one can discern a tension between Wilsonian internationalism and unilateralism. Faced with this situation, Habermas returns to Kant's conception of world citizenship and proposes the constitutionalization of international law as the way out: strengthening and reforming the United Nations so that it truly assumes its mission of safeguarding peace and human rights, and restricting the veto power of the permanent members; at the same time, he calls for a "core Europe" capable of speaking with a common voice. The book also contains the author's supplements and revisions to his own theory of communicative action: the preconditions of communication are extremely fragile, and everyday coexistence can break down through misunderstanding, insincerity, and manipulation.

Editor's review

当“西方”被当作一个整体来谈论时，哈贝马斯提醒我们：它从来不是铁板一块。这本写于“9·11”之后的论文集，抓住的正是当代国际政治最深的一道裂隙——不是文明冲突，而是西方内部关于“要不要遵守规则”的分歧。作者的分析之所以不过时，是因为它提供的不是对某一届政府的时评，而是一套理解霸权与规则的框架：单边主义如何以道德之名绕开法律，多边主义又该如何在制度上自我加固。中文版由复旦大学哲学学院郁喆隽翻译，译笔清晰，并附译者序梳理全书脉络，对不熟悉德国哲学话语的读者十分友好。书中关于欧盟内部“速度差”、跨大西洋裂痕、联合国改革与安理会否决权的讨论，在今天读来仍有强烈的现实回响。它适合那些不满足于新闻式解读、希望从哲学层面理解国际秩序何以松动的人。

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Reading tips

  1. 先读郁喆隽的译者序，把握全书四部分的结构与写作背景，再进入正文。
  2. 把“9·11”之后与入侵伊拉克两章当作“问题提出”来读，留意作者对单边主义的批判逻辑。
  3. 读第四部分时，可先了解康德《永久和平论》的基本主张，理解“国际法宪法化”究竟指向什么。
  4. 配合近年来关于欧盟、北约与多极化的报道阅读，思考书中判断在二十年后哪些被印证、哪些被修正。

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

Contents

  1. Translator's Preface
  2. Foreword
  3. Part One: After September 11
  4. Chapter One: Fundamentalism and Terror
  5. Chapter Two: What Does It Mean When Statues Fall?
  6. Part Two: European Voices in the Polyphony of Nations
  7. Chapter Three: February 15 (or: What Is It That Binds Europeans Together?)
  8. Chapter Four: The Counterforce of Core Europe? A Second Inquiry
  9. Chapter Five: The German-Polish Mental State
  10. Chapter Six: Is a European Identity Necessary and Possible?
  11. Part Three: Eyes on a Troubled World
  12. Chapter Seven: An Interview on War and Peace
  13. Part Four: The Kantian Project and the Divided West
  14. Chapter Eight: Is There Still a Chance for the Constitutionalization of International Law?
  15. Introduction
  16. Section One: A Politically Organized World Society vs. a World Republic
  17. Section Two: The Constitutionalization of International Law or the Ethics of a Liberal Superpower
  18. Section Three: An Alternative Vision of a New World Order
  19. Notes on the Text
  20. Index of Names
  21. Notes

FAQ

这本书是哈贝马斯新写的专著吗？ 不是。它是哈贝马斯在2001年之后撰写的八篇论文与数篇访谈的结集，按主题分为四个部分，德文原书名为 Der gespaltene Westen，英文版 The Divided West 于2006年由 Polity 出版。
书名副标题“指明21世纪国际政治的核心思路”是原书标题吗？ 不是原书副题，而是中文版在宣传与电商页面上使用的推荐语，用来概括本书主旨；正式书名仍为《分裂的西方》。
没有哲学基础能读懂吗？ 前半部分讨论恐怖主义、伊拉克战争与欧洲认同，可读性较强；第四部分涉及康德与世界主义、国际法宪法化等概念，需要一定耐心。建议配合译者序和康德《永久和平论》的相关介绍阅读。
这本书和当下“西方分裂”的讨论是什么关系？ 哈贝马斯在2004年前后提出“分裂的西方”的判断，指出分歧在盎格鲁—撒克逊国家与欧洲大陆国家之间展开。此后英国脱欧、右翼民粹兴起与跨大西洋关系重塑，被许多论者视为对书中预警的印证，但书中并未涉及这些后来的事件。
中译本是哪一年、谁翻译的？ 中文版由郁喆隽翻译，上海译文出版社2019年3月出版，属“译文经典”丛书，ISBN为9787532779680，精装，定价48.00元。

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About the author

Jürgen Habermas Author · German · 1929–2026

Jürgen Habermas (1929–2026) was a German philosopher and sociologist, and a representative figure of the second generation of the Frankfurt School. He developed ideas such as the theory of communicative action, the structural transformation of the public sphere, and discourse ethics. His major works include The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, The Theory of Communicative Action, and Between Facts and Norms, and he has had a profound influence on contemporary social theory and political philosophy. This site carries five of his works, covering The Logic of the Social Sciences, Legitimation Crisis, Philosophical Introductions, The Divided West, and The Crisis of the European Union: A Response to the Crisis of the European Constitution, with subjects spanning social psychology, finance, philosophical reading, and politics. These works continue his style of addressing real-world problems through normative theory, reflecting both on the methodology of the social sciences and on European integration and constitutional questions, allowing readers to trace his intellectual development from multiple angles.