Axel Honneth and the Movement of Recognition

Axel Honneth and the Movement of Recognition
Author: Tommaso U. A. Sperotto
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 426
Release: 2022-06-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3110772140

The author explores the thought of one of the most important contemporary philosophers, Axel Honneth, in his attempt to develop a critical theory of society and to develop a third way between liberalism and republicanism. At the heart of this attempt is the concept of recognition, which is explored in all its multiple dimensions in order to develop a new image of subject, society, and freedom.

The Struggle for Recognition

The Struggle for Recognition
Author: Axel Honneth
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2018-03-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0745692427

In this book Axel Honneth re-examines arguments put forward by Hegel and claims that the 'struggle for recognition' should be at the centre of social conflicts.

The I in We

The I in We
Author: Axel Honneth
Publisher: Polity
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-10-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780745652320

In this volume Axel Honneth deepens and develops his highly influential theory of recognition, showing how it enables us both to rethink the concept of justice and to offer a compelling account of the relationship between social reproduction and individual identity formation. Drawing on his reassessment of Hegel’s practical philosophy, Honneth argues that our conception of social justice should be redirected from a preoccupation with the principles of distributing goods to a focus on the measures for creating symmetrical relations of recognition. This theoretical reorientation has far-reaching implications for the theory of justice, as it obliges this theory to engage directly with problems concerning the organization of work and with the ideologies that stabilize relations of domination. In the final part of this volume Honneth shows how the theory of recognition provides a fruitful and illuminating way of exploring the relation between social reproduction and identity formation. Rather than seeing groups as regressive social forms that threaten the autonomy of the individual, Honneth argues that the ‘I’ is dependent on forms of social recognition embodied in groups, since neither self-respect nor self-esteem can be maintained without the supportive experience of practising shared values in the group. This important new book by one of the leading social philosophers of our time will be of great interest to students and scholars in philosophy, sociology, politics and the humanities and social sciences generally.

Axel Honneth

Axel Honneth
Author: Christopher Zurn
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2015-04-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0745686788

With his insightful and wide-ranging theory of recognition, AxelHonneth has decisively reshaped the Frankfurt School tradition ofcritical social theory. Combining insights from philosophy,sociology, psychology, history, political economy, and culturalcritique, Honneth’s work proposes nothing less than anaccount of the moral infrastructure of human sociality and itsrelation to the perils and promise of contemporary sociallife. This book provides an accessible overview of Honneth’s maincontributions across a variety of fields, assessing the strengthsand weaknesses of his thought. Christopher Zurn clearly explainsHonneth’s multi-faceted theory of recognition and itsrelation to diverse topics: individual identity, morality, activistmovements, progress, social pathologies, capitalism, justice,freedom, and critique. In so doing, he places Honneth’stheory in a broad intellectual context, encompassing classic socialtheorists such as Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Dewey, Adorno andHabermas, as well as contemporary trends in social theory andpolitical philosophy. Treating the full range of Honneth’scorpus, including his major new work on social freedom anddemocratic ethical life, this book is the most up-to-date guideavailable. Axel Honneth will be invaluable to students and scholarsworking across the humanities and social sciences, as well asanyone seeking a clear guide to the work of one of the mostinfluential theorists writing today.

Redistribution Or Recognition?

Redistribution Or Recognition?
Author: Nancy Fraser
Publisher: Verso
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2003
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781859844922

A debate between two philosophers who hold different views on the relation of redistribution to recognition.

Freedom's Right

Freedom's Right
Author: Axel Honneth
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2014-03-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0745680062

The theory of justice is one of the most intensely debated areas of contemporary philosophy. Most theories of justice, however, have only attained their high level of justification at great cost. By focusing on purely normative, abstract principles, they become detached from the sphere that constitutes their “field of application” - namely, social reality. Axel Honneth proposes a different approach. He seeks to derive the currently definitive criteria of social justice directly from the normative claims that have developed within Western liberal democratic societies. These criteria and these claims together make up what he terms “democratic ethical life”: a system of morally legitimate norms that are not only legally anchored, but also institutionally established. Honneth justifies this far-reaching endeavour by demonstrating that all essential spheres of action in Western societies share a single feature, as they all claim to realize a specific aspect of individual freedom. In the spirit of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and guided by the theory of recognition, Honneth shows how principles of individual freedom are generated which constitute the standard of justice in various concrete social spheres: personal relationships, economic activity in the market, and the political public sphere. Honneth seeks thereby to realize a very ambitious aim: to renew the theory of justice as an analysis of society.

The Experience of Injustice

The Experience of Injustice
Author: Emmanuel Renault
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2019-02-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0231548982

In The Experience of Injustice, the French philosopher Emmanuel Renault opens an important new chapter in critical theory. He brings together political theory, critical social science, and a keen sense of the power of popular movements to offer a forceful vision of social justice. Questioning normative political philosophy’s conception of justice, Renault gives an account of injustice as the denial of recognition, placing the experience of social suffering at the heart of contemporary critical theory. Inspired by Axel Honneth, Renault argues that a radicalized version of Honneth’s ethics of recognition can provide a systematic alternative to the liberal-democratic projects of such thinkers as Rawls and Habermas. Renault reformulates Honneth’s theory as a framework founded on experiences of injustice. He develops a complex, psychoanalytically rich account of suffering, disaffiliation, and identity loss to explain these experiences as denials of recognition, linking everyday injustice to a robust defense of the politicization of identity in social struggles. Engaging contemporary French and German critical theory alongside interdisciplinary tools from sociology, psychoanalysis, socialist political theory, social-movement theory, and philosophy, Renault articulates the importance of a theory of recognition for the resurgence of social critique.

Recognition and Power

Recognition and Power
Author: Bert van den Brink
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 21
Release: 2007-04-09
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 113946275X

The topic of recognition has come to occupy a central place in debates in social and political theory. Developed by George Herbert Mead and Charles Taylor, it has been given expression in the program for Critical Theory developed by Axel Honneth in his book The Struggle for Recognition. Honneth's research program offers an empirically insightful way of reflecting on emancipatory struggles for greater justice and a powerful theoretical tool for generating a conception of justice and the good that enables the normative evaluation of such struggles. This 2007 volume offers a critical clarification and evaluation of this research program, particularly its relationship to the other major development in critical social and political theory; namely, the focus on power as formative of practical identities (or forms of subjectivity) proposed by Michel Foucault and developed by theorists such as Judith Butler, James Tully, and Iris Marion Young.

Rethinking Misrecognition and Struggles for Recognition

Rethinking Misrecognition and Struggles for Recognition
Author: Douglas Giles
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-09-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781735880815

The need for justice for individuals, groups, and society as a whole has perhaps never been more pressing. The presence or absence of social recognition plays a vital role in both social injustices and efforts to overcome and prevent them. Critical theory philosopher Axel Honneth's influential accounts of recognition and struggles for recognition contain important insights about injustice and social justice movements. Unfortunately, some of Honneth's concepts are narrow and need expansion for them to be useful in considering social injustices and responses to those injustices. This is especially true if we are to understand and respond to current social justice issues such as Black Lives Matter and the climate crisis.Douglas Giles presents an important corrective and addition to Axel Honneth's view of recognition that gives the concepts of recognition, misrecognition, and struggles for recognition more explanatory power. He first critiques Honneth's account of misrecognition as a simple lack of recognition and provides an alternative view of misrecognition as complex and multidimensional, helping us better understand the causes and effects of injustices. He then engages in a critical examination of Honneth's account of struggles for recognition-the emancipation from injustice. The American civil rights movement and women's suffrage movements are archetypal political struggles for recognition, but Honneth, like Charles Taylor and others, sees struggles for recognition only as political struggles, leaving out much of the story of struggles for recognition. In response, Giles presents a more robust picture of struggles for recognition that decentralizes struggles for recognition by including individual experience and agency. This contribution to recognition studies expands the reality of recognition and misrecognition beyond theoretical concepts into the daily lives of individuals. Recognition is essential for affirming one's identity and one's place in community and society. Misrecognition is at the heart of many injustices from interpersonal relations to structural socioeconomic inequalities. Struggles for recognition are ubiquitous for everyone because people's need for recognition extends far beyond political recognition. Giles crafts a view of recognition and misrecognition that identifies some important problems in critical theory's approach to social justice and offers new conceptualizations to assist future research in various fields of critical social theories.

Recognition and the Media

Recognition and the Media
Author: R. Maia
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-10-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781137310422

This collection examines Axel Honneth's theory of recognition and the crucial role played by the media in struggles for recognition. It brings together debates on controversial aspects of Honneth's work and a set of intriguing empirical studies including with slum-dwelling adolescents, leprosy patients and women exposed to child labor exploitation