"Paladin of modernity" and "master of communication", "Frankfurt polemicist" and "public moral conscience of political culture": these are some of the epithets that Jürgen Habermas has earned. It has rightly been said of him that "he is not only the most famous living philosopher in the world, but his own fame is famous." But if his figure as a thinker is newsworthy, and may even seem fascinating, it is because he knew how to leave the protected field of academic life time and again to intervene in debates in the public sphere. "It is irritability," Habermas himself says of himself, "that turns a sage into an intellectual." Reconstructing the intricate intertwining between the craft of the philosopher and social theorist and the craft of the public intellectual is the object of this biography.
For this reason, its pages are not limited to narrating, with the help of Habermas's own texts, the gestation and maturation of an enormous philosophical work through its different stages, which have led to the elaboration of a «theory of communicative action »Embodied in unmistakable language and style of thinking. They also reveal the essence of this colossal effort at theoretical understanding in the effort to lay the foundations of a democratic and deliberative political culture. Hence the presence, in this biography, of the controversies that have stirred German and international public opinion, such as the 1953 controversy over Heidegger, the 1967 student protests, the 1986 historians' dispute, the various debates on rearmament. and civil disobedience, German reunification, the European Union, political asylum, genetic technology, the Kosovo conflict or the Gulf wars, or the discussion, which continues to this day, about the place of religion in society postsecular.
"Communicative reason", recalls Habermas, "is certainly an insecure and vacillating table, but it does not drown in the sea of ​​contingencies, even when such a shudder on the high seas is the only way it can 'master' contingencies."

Reviews and criticisms:

- «The life and work of the German thinker Habermas is a faithful reflection of the future of Europe and, specifically, of Germany. A biography reviews his thoughts and his career, not without controversy. (César Antonio Molina on ABC Cultural, October 24, 2020)

- «A biography of the 90-year-old German philosopher allows us to trace the great intellectual polemics of the last half century. His defense of the values ​​of the Enlightenment and his criticism of amnesia regarding the Nazi past have made him a moral conscience of Europe. (Babelia, April 10, 2020)

- «A splendid biography of the now ninety-year-old German philosopher and sociologist, epigone of the Frankfurt School and one of the most important modern thinkers. A reference work on this great reference in current philosophy and sociology ”. (La Razón, June 4, 2020)

«The biography of Jürgen Habermas once again exhibits before the eyes of the reader all the great debates of the last decades and in which the philosopher left a decisive mark, such as the dispute of historians, the conflict over the Kosovo war or, in end, on the politics of Europe. (Alexander Camman, Die Zeit)

“Few would have anything to object to the verdict that Habermas has achieved - both in his philosophical work and in his role as his public intellectual - a place of enduring importance that surpasses that of any other thinker of our time. The definitive new biography of Stefan Müller-Doohm ... exposes the evidence supporting this conclusion with great care and enormous sympathy for its protagonist. (The Nation)

«The philosopher Jürgen Habermas is one of the last intellectuals of world stature. The diagnoses that he has been making for half a century on contemporary society, the concepts that he has coined or developed - such as those of "public sphere", "communicative action" or "cosmopolitanism" - and that cover practically the entire field of social sciences they have stimulated the political debate considerably. ' (Le Soir)