Montag, den 23. Februar 2009Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS)Luisenstr. 56, Haus 1, Raum 22010117 Berlin-Mitte17:00 bis 19:00 Uhr Ciaran CRONINHabermas, the Reluctant CosmopolitanRépondant : Yves SINTOMER   This conference will examine a range of objections which have been raised against Habermas’s theory of cosmopolitan democracy, develop some further criticisms of its own, and argue that they could be adequately addressed only by embracing a stronger version of the Kantian cosmopolitan idea. Starting from Habermas’s most recent version of his multilevel institutional model for a future global politics, I will argue that at each of the three levels – the national, the transnational, and the supranational – problems arise not only regarding their empirical viability but also concerning the coherence of the conceptions of political legitimacy that inform them. At stake is whether, and in what form, the deliberative model of democray, which Habermas developed with national legal and political orders in mind, can be extended to politics above the level of nation-states. It transpires that the tension between liberal and republican traditions of thought concerning democracy, which the deliberative theory is designed to overcome, breaks out again at the transnational and supranational levels. The problems can be traced back Habermas’s attempt to avoid the charges of idealism and utopianism by accommodating his version of cosmopolitanism to existing international political realities. However, I will suggest that the power of the cosmopolitan ideas may reside precisely in their idealistic, utopian character.Ciaran CRONIN is the author of a number of publications on Habermas’s political philosophy ("Democracy and Collective Identity," European Journal of Philosophy 11/1, 2003; "On the Possibility of a Democratic Constitutional Founding," Ratio Juris 19/3, 2006) — and has translated a number of his books into English — most recently, Europe, the Faltering Project (Polity, forthcoming) and Between Naturalism and Religion (Polity, 2008).Yves SINTOMER, stellvertretender Direktor des Centre Marc Bloch, ist Professor für Soziologie an der Universität Paris VIII. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Demokratietheorie, die Entwicklung partizipativer Verfahren in Europa und in der Welt, die Frage des muslimischen Koptuchs und ein Vergleich der verschiedenen Sozialwissenschaften. Yves Sintomer hat 1996 promoviert (Politik und Sozialwissenschaft, am europäischen Hochschulinstitut Florenz) und 2001 habilitiert (Soziologie, Universität Paris V). Er studierte und lehrte an verschiedenen Universitäten: Louvain-la-neuve, Bilbao, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Harward, Lille, Catania und Madrid (Complutense). Er hat viele Bücher und Aufsätze veröffentlicht, die in mehr als zehn Sprachen übersetzt wurden, ist Mitglied des wissenschaftlichen Beirats des La Decouverte Verlags und in der Redaktion verschiedenen Zeitschriften tätig. http://www.cmb.hu-berlin.de/cmb/main/index.php?cms_menu_id=480&language=fr ———————