Maeve Cooke (born in 1959) is an Irish philosopher and a professor in the School of Philosophy at University College Dublin. Her research interests include political and social philosophy as well as philosophy of religion and philosophy of language.[1] She is a proponent of contemporary critical social theory.[2]
Maeve Cooke | |
|---|---|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University College Dublin (BA, MA), University of Konstanz (DPhil) |
| Thesis | The claims of communication: Jürgen Habermas' programme of formal pragmatics, its contribution to the theory of meaning and its implications for a concept of communicative reason and rationality (1989) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Philosophy |
Sub-discipline | Critical social theory |
Career
editCooke has a BA and MA from University College Dublin and a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Konstanz which she completed in 1989 with a thesis on formal pragmatics in Jürgen Habermas' theory of communication.[3] She has held positions at various universities in Ireland, the United States, and Germany and was appointed as a Full Professor in the School of Philosophy at University College Dublin in 2006.[4]
Work
editIn her work, Cooke has variously focussed on notions of truth and the role of reasons in democratic discourse,[5][6] freedom beyond conceptions of positive and negative liberty,[7][8] secularism, anthropocentrism, and the future of critical theory.[9]
Selected list of publications:
- Transformations in Critical Theory: Decentrings, Openings, Futures. Polity, 2026. ISBN 978-1-5095-7301-1
- "Five arguments for deliberative democracy." In: Democracy as Public Deliberation. Routledge, 2018: 53-87.
- "A secular state for a postsecular society? Postmetaphysical political theory and the place of religion." In: Constellations, Vol. 14(2), 2007: 224-238.
- Re-Presenting the Good Society. MIT Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-262-27077-9
- "Authenticity and autonomy: Taylor, Habermas, and the politics of recognition." In: Political Theory, Vol. 25(2), 1997: 258-288.
- Language and Reasons: A Study of Habermas's Pragmatics. MIT Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-262-53145-0
Awards
editCooke was elected as a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2005.[10] She has also received several research awards and fellowships including the Fulbright Irish Scholar Award in 2011 and the Humboldt Research Award Programme in 2025.[11][12]
References
edit- ↑ "Prof. Dr. Maeve A. Cooke". www.humboldt-foundation.de. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
- ↑ Fultner, Barbara (2007). "Re-Presenting the Good Society". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
- ↑ Cooke, Maeve. The claims of communication: Jürgen Habermas' programme of formal pragmatics, its contribution to the theory of meaning and its implications for a concept of communicative reason and rationality (Thesis).
- ↑ "Professor Maeve Cooke – About". University College Dublin. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
- ↑ "Cooke Maeve". INSTITUTE FOR PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL THEORY. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
- ↑ Allen, Amy (2008). "Re‐Presenting the Good Society By Maeve Cooke". Constellations. 15 (4): 587–590. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8675.2008.00512_1.x. ISSN 1351-0487.
- ↑ Cooke, Maeve (2021), "Beyond Positive and Negative Liberty: Habermas and Honneth on Political Freedom", in Christman, John (ed.), Positive Freedom: Past, Present, and Future, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 194–216, ISBN 978-1-108-48790-0, retrieved 2026-04-08
- ↑ Humphreys, Joe. "Unthinkable: Are freedom and equality inevitably in conflict?". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
- ↑ "Transformations in Critical Theory: Decentrings, Openings, Futures | Wiley". Wiley.com. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
- ↑ "Professor Maeve Cooke". Royal Irish Academy. 2026-03-04. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
- ↑ "Maeve Cooke – Fulbright". Retrieved 2026-04-08.
- ↑ "Prof. Dr. Maeve A. Cooke". www.humboldt-foundation.de. Retrieved 2026-04-08.