Based on the new German edition of Philosophisch-politische Profile which has attracted serious and widespread attention, this book includes thirteen pieces written by Habermas between 1958 and 1978 - the most important of those in the German edition, plus additional articles.In these essays, Habermas offers a clear and strikingly personal examination of major modern German philosophers and cultural critics, focusing particularly on the content of their thought in relation to their respective political and biographical contexts. Contents Does Philosophy Still Have a Purpose? • The German Influence (Heidegger) • The Figures of Truth (Jaspers) • Karl Löwith's Stoic Retreat from Historical Consciousness • A Marxist Schelling (Bloch) • A Primal History of Subjectivity and Self-Affirmation Gone Wild (Adorno) • Imitated Substantiality (Gehlen) • Consciousness-raising or Rescuing Critique-On the Relevance of Walter Benjamin • Herbert Marcuse on Art and Revolution • Hannah Arendt's Concept of Power • The Hidden Torah (Gershom Scholem) • Urbanizing the Heideggerian Province-In Praise of Hans-Georg Gadamer Philosophical-Political Profiles is included in the series, Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought.