Critical Encounters, a study of contemporary philosophy and political and social theory, inserts itself into ongoing conversations at the junctures of philosophy and political thought, and modernity and post-modernism. Through dialogue and critique Fred R. Dallmayr seeks to find a viable path for political theory in the midst of contemporary discussions in philosophy and the social sciences, discussions influenced or overshadowed by twentieth-century phenomenology, hermeneutics, critical theory, structuralism, pragmatism, and deconstruction.

Dallmayr's perspective is delivered not as direct exposition, but through a series of critical encounters with some of the leading spokesmen of contemporary thought. His path points in the direction of a political theory construed as "practical ontology" or a pragmatism with ontological overtones. Dallmayr presupposes that such a renewed ontology can be articulated as only a strand in a larger conversational fabric. Against this weave he profiles his critical responses and engaging dialogues.

Among the voices to which Dallmayr responds are: Apel's linguistic foundationalism; Habermas's bifurcation of instrumental system and life-world; Ricoeur's phenomenological antinomies; Gadamer's lingering hermeneutical idealism; Derrida's preference for nihilation of being; Bernstein's Deweyan pragmatism; and Macintyre's pragmatic traditionalism. Among contemporary social and political theorists attention is given to Giddens, Luhmann, and Theunissen.