Abstract
In The Contemporary Theory of the Public Sphere, Patrick O’Mahony seeks to reconcile normative political-philosophical theories of democracy with critical macro-sociology. His attempt to do so results in a wide-ranging synthesis of normative democratic theory, through both Jurgen Habermas’ writings on the public sphere and cognitive sociology, which understands democratic norms—including but not limited to those coming from political philosophy or sociology—as arising from cognitive schema that develop out of public discourse. This perspective, which O’Mahony terms “cognitive-communicative,” offers a methodological approach to understanding the ways multiple publics, through communicative acts, conceive of democratic ideals grounded in cognitive foundations. This approach also considers the macro-level societal contexts of communication in the public sphere, examining the qualities of communication within differentiated public complexes: those of legal and governmental structures; the formally organized social spheres of unions, professional organizations, and academia; the civil societal sphere of media and general publics; and the sphere of private associations.
While this book offers an interesting frame for empirical discourse analysis and sociological theorization of the public sphere, it is written for an audience more familiar with the lexicon and practice of political philosophy. Still, O’Mahony engages cognitive sociology while entreating political philosophers and sociologists alike to take the public as a serious category, employing a more nuanced understanding of the public embraced by Habermas in his later work. For sociologists, O’Mahony’s call is to pursue discourse analyses that reveal what cognitive structures regarding societal ideals exist and how they emerge, while reflexively taking responsibility for their own normative arguments—not only against societal problems, but also for the societal ideals they hold.