The fifteen essays provide analyses of the various orientations which critical theory has taken both historically and systematically in recent years, expositions of the new perspectives which have begun to shape the field, and reflections upon the direction of critical theory. Although critical theory has undergone numerous transformations over the years, it is alive and well, as is represented by its practitioners, the best of whom are represented in this superlative volume.

This volume offers its readers an invitation to encounter critical theory through its many and varied manifestations. Aesthetics, history, pragmatics, psychoanalysis, ethics, empirical science, the controversy over the meaning of justice, the new discussion of democracy, the discourse over civil society, the controversy over autonomy, and the most recent contributions to the philosophy and sociology of law - all these areas have found modes of expression in critical theory. At the same time one will find practice of critical theory as expressed through confrontation with its critics, particularly analytic philosophy and deconstruction, as it seeks to find new forms of expression forged out of a living tradition.