The Sociological Roots and Deficits of Axel Honneth’s Theory of Recognition

Abstract

Having written uninterruptedly on several topics concerning political and social philosophy from the late 1970s to the present, Axel Honneth offers his readers a wide range of possibilities to engage with his work. The theoretical path traced in his almost 40 years of intellectual life, however, has not always followed a univocal line, advancing through conceptual shifts of varying scope, always in a committed debate with his peers, commentators and students. This chapter proposes an interpretation that allows understanding the theoretical shifts undertaken along this path, showing that Honneth moves between two critical models: one centered on the social actors’ experience of disrespect and injustice, and another focused on institutions and the functional imperatives of the social order. As a result, the second model runs the risk of falling prey to Honneth’s own objection of critical theory’s sociological deficit. A conceptual tool for avoiding such risk can be found, the author argues, in a dialogically interpreted notion of normative reconstruction, which could restore the latent, dialectical role of negativity, once crucial to Honneth’s theory.