Autopsy of the relationship of media and society. Review on Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, The - Jurgen Habermas

Habermas is probably one of the great figures of philosophy from the 20th century. It is a great honour to review, perhaps his best known work Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society.If you think the title was taxing, wait till you get your hands on the book. For those who believe in not judging a book by its cover, this is certainly not it. From the cover itself the book demands your complete attention and truth to be told, it’s totally worth it. It’s an acute autopsy of the media industry and the relation between media and society.

Several important influences on Habermas's work are evident. Firstly, he borrows many important terms and categories from Kant, Hegel and Marx. Many of his ways of thinking about the public sphere are explicitly Kantian, and he develops Hegel's central category of civil society into the basis from which public opinion emerges. Of these, Kant is perhaps the greatest influence, simply because for Habermas his work represents the "fully developed" theory of the public sphere

Structural Transformationis a historical-sociological account of the emergence, transformation, and disintegration of the bourgeois public sphere. It combines methods and materials from sociology, economics, law, political science and social and cultural history in an effort to grasp the preconditions, structures, functions, and inner tensions of this central domain of modern society. If you like Hegel, Kant, Marx or The Frankfurt School, pick up this book. Statutory Warning: Only for serious and repeat offenders of philosophy.