Axel Honneth Research Articles

Chronic pain patients\u2019 need for recognition and their current struggle

Chronic pain patients often miss receiving acknowledgement for the multidimensional struggles they face with their specific conditions. People suffering from chronic pain experience a type of invisibility that is also borne by other chronically ill people and their respective medical conditions. However, chronic pain patients face both passive and active exclusion from social participation in activities like family interactions or workplace inclusion. Although such aspects are discussed in the debates lead by the bio-psycho-social model of pain, there seems to be a lack of a distinct interest in assessing more specifically the social aspects regarding chronic pain. As a result, the social aspects have yet to be taken into a more thorough theoretical consideration of chronic pain and to be practically implemented to help affected patients. By addressing chronic pain patients’ struggle for recognition, this paper attempts to shed light on some of these social aspects. We base this attempt on a theoretical framework that combines patients’ statements with an adaptation of Axel Honneth’s social-philosophical work on recognition. Thus, this paper tries to make a suggestion on how the bio-psycho-social model of pain can live up to its name by helping to address more adequately some of the more neglected aspects in chronic pain patients’ suffering than has been possible to date.

Misuse of Winnicott: On Axel Honneth's appropriation of psychoanalysis

ConstellationsVolume 28, Issue 3 p. 306-321 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Misuse of Winnicott: On Axel Honneth's appropriation of psychoanalysis Joel Whitebook, Corresponding Author Joel Whitebook joelwhitebook@gmail.com Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research Correspondence Joel Whitebook, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Email: joelwhitebook@gmail.comSearch for more papers by this author Joel Whitebook, Corresponding Author Joel Whitebook joelwhitebook@gmail.com Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research Correspondence Joel Whitebook, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Email: joelwhitebook@gmail.comSearch for more papers by this author First published: 21 June 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12582 Commemorating the 50th anniversary of Winnicott's Death Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume28, Issue3September 2021Pages 306-321 RelatedInformation

Human displacement and social recognition: the working conditions and relations of refugees and displaced people in Brazil

Abstract This research analyzes the process of inclusion and social recognition of migrants in a Brazilian city. The study presents a report of the demands from migrants in the context of a host project carried out at a Brazilian public university regarding their insertion in the world of work and in Brazilian higher education, highlighting their difficulties and expressions of suffering. Documentary research was used based on the analysis of qualitative data collected from about 300 interviews and over 1000 individual and group psychosocial consultations carried out with migrants in the city of Curitiba-PR. As a theoretical framework we adopted the category of “social recognition” proposed by Nancy Fraser (2008a) based on the debate with Axel Honneth (2009), and inspired by the category “struggle for recognition,” by Hegel (2008). Results point to the precarious inclusion of migrants in the labor market, with evident social injustice and psychological suffering.

Comment enchaîner ? Réflexions sur le déchaînement de la pensée tolérante

Eighteenth-century intellectual debates may sometimes be used to reveal the issues at stake in contemporary ones as does for example the controversy between Mendelssohn and Christian Wilhelm Dohm about the emancipation of the Jews: what matters to Mendelssohn beyond the question of the rights of the Jews as a religious minority, is the recognition of fundamental natural rights on which the recognition of civil rights can be established.Mendelssohn opposes a communitarian misinterpretation of the issue of equal rights, rejecting thus the confusion between liberalism and laissez-faire. US-American debates on freedom of religious thought, in which religious tolerance, relativism and freedom are often used to justify discrimination, show how perfectly right he was as a man ahead of his time.Pluralism does not mean that all assertions are acceptable as a principle; in fact, quite the opposite is true: it presupposes that they are acceptable in principle, i.e. that they meet the requirement of pluralism.This article confronts Habermas’s theoretical models with Jean-François Lyotard’s, and analyses the contribution of Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition. Lyotard’s essential idea is to encourage the acceptance of diversity of opinion, provided it does not jeopardise democracy, and to maintain the dialogue, without surrendering to reasons that are not recognised as better ones. A commitment that is not hopelessly dogmatic must allow the dialogue to flow in a discursive way.

Potenciais contribuições da teoria da Luta por Reconhecimento, de Axel Honneth, para o desenvolvimento de reflexões críticas e pesquisas empíricas sobre as práticas de saúde

Health practices have been experiencing a crisis of legitimacy for some time, which overcoming seems to depend not only on technical responses, but requires a more radical review of their assumptions and strategies. This requirement also demands reviewing the theoretical arsenal that instructs critical reflection and empirical research on these practices. The present essay seeks to explore the contributions that Axel Honneth's Theory of the Struggle for Recognition can bring to this process. In this sense, the general lines of this theory are exposed and implications for health thinking/research are pointed out. The potential of this situation is noteworthy, especially with regard to the field of rights and social esteem, to explain processes of disrespect and, consequently, conflicts in the field of health; alienation as a barrier to the recognition of oneself and the other; and to promote reconstructive dialogues between theoretical frameworks that facilitate the articulated understanding of subjective and social processes, which is relevant for the construction of effective health care.

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Abstract With these comments I try to explain why I am not quite convinced by the objections of four colleagues who touch on relevant issues of great weight. Axel Honneth claims that I failed to take into account the systematic weight of the Aristotelian tradition which I pursue only up until Thomas Aquinas (1). Peter Gordon points to an asymmetry in the presentation of the discourse between faith and knowledge that allegedly calls into question the independence of what philosophy developed, by its own standards, from an appropriation of semantic contents of religious traditions (2). Regina Kreide and Tilo Wesche explain the central intention that in fact guided me in this book, but criticise the one-sidedness of an undialectical account of learning processes, in whose shadow the victims tend to be neglected (3).

Recognition Struggles of Young Danes Under the Work First Paradigm - a Study of Restricted and Generalised Agency

Work has become ‘a normatively charged concept, one in which normative expectations and the current form of a society’s relation to work have become sedimented’ (Jaeggi, 2016:70). Critical theorists have observed how work is linked to recognition and self-realization. Consequently, they see how unemployment can lead to a sense of alienation. Exploring the social practices among young entrepreneurial creative people receiving unemployment benefits in Denmark, we pose the following research question: how do young people in the unemployment benefit system work within and against the system? Based on interviews with young unemployed people conducted as part of a PhD (Pultz, 2017), we aim to unfold how the young people challenge the ‘work first paradigm’, including resisting the neoliberal understanding that human worth is determined by employment status. We combine insight from critical theory in order to understand the current work pathologies and apply the critical psychological concepts of restricted and expansive agency to shed light on how our sample engages in recognition struggles. They do so by seeking to gain influence over conditions and simultaneously resisting structures that restrict subjective agency in the spheres of love, achievement and rights. We will use this combined macro- and micro-level theoretical framework to analyse subjective reasoning for expansive agency embedded in an institutional and political context that reflects the work pathology diagnosis and produces its own dilemmas that need further understanding. Combining critical theory, more specifically Axel Honneth’s work on recognition with critical psychology, allows us to move beyond deterministic holds and to improve our understanding of agentic potential in society. Improving our understanding of how young unemployed people work within and against the system helps us better understand how individuals navigate the complex relations between societal structures and the self.

Theoretical proposal for the relationship between epistemology and ethics in psychology

The concept of epistemological violence and recommendations on how to avoid it have been extensively developed by Thomas Teo. The objective of this article is to elaborate a conceptual proposal to investigate the relationship between ethics and the epistemology of empirical research in psychology. It is contended that some concepts of Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition strengthen the ethical scope of the concept of epistemological violence. This article presents the concept of epistemological violence and shows how the production of psychological knowledge can have negative consequences for groups and individuals. The relevance of broadening the ethical dimension of the concept, theorizing the negative consequences of knowledge as probabilities of misrecognition, is discussed. To this end, central aspects of the theory of recognition are developed that will allow the consideration of epistemological violence as an accomplice in the practice of social injustices.

Recognition and Work in the Platform Economy: a Normative Reconstruction

The rise of the platform economy in the past two decades (and neoliberal capitalist expansion and crises more in general), have on the whole negatively affected working conditions, leading to growing concerns about the “human side” of organizations. To address these concerns, the purpose of this paper is to apply Axel Honneth’s recognition theory and method of normative reconstruction to working conditions in the platform economy. The paper concludes that the ways in which platform organizations function constitutes a normative paradox, promising flexibility and autonomy while at the same time creating working conditions that undercut these promises. The paper ends with a critical discussion of Honneth’s approach, possible supplementing ideas and further lines of future research.

Pandangan Axel Honneth tentang Keadilan sebagai Institusionalisasi Kebebasan dalam Relasi Pengakuan

This article explores Axel Honneth’s normative reconstruction of social liberty as discussed in his book, Freedom’s Right. Honneth’s argument is complex. On one side, he believes that justice can ultimately only be judged in terms of the ideals actually institutionalised in that society. On the other side, he insists that contemporary theories of justice that are guided almost exclusively by the legal paradigm is a theoretical folly. In the first part, this article presents Honneth’s critical reading of the differences between negative and reflexive models of freedom. Then it discusses the ideas of democracy as reflexive cooperation of the ‘we’ in relation to the concept of social freedom. It then reviews Honneth’s argument on justice as institutionalised freedom. The author compares Honneth’s account of solidarity with Enrique Dussel’s views in the fourth part of this article. The conclusion shows that social freedom cannot be realised without a pedagogical process in this exclusion age, and that this process might enlarge the individuals’ horizon of solidarity as future citizens.

Ethics of Recognition: The Struggles of Ilongga Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)

This descriptive-qualitative-critical research aimed to appropriate Axel Honneth’s theory in the Struggles for Recognition of the Ilongga Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to understand the plight of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) particularly, the Filipina domestic helpers. This work was premised on the idea to help uplift their dignity by promoting their rights as empowered women in the Philippine society. The researcher argued that several Filipina domestic helpers had been victims of various forms of injustices such as sexual harassment, discrimination, and exploitation. Thus, the most that they can do is to struggle to recognize their rights and dignity as full-pledged members of the Philippine society. A phenomenological approach was employed, content analysis, researcher interview-guide-questionnaire, one-on-one personal interview through phone calls, messenger chats, and Focused Group Discussion (FGD) with OFWs were utilized. Three themes had emerged: Physical and psychological abuse, sexual harassment, and insecurity of financial stability. This paper recommended that the concerned government agencies provide concrete plans for Filipina OFWs in consonance with Republic Act No. 10022. These OFWs should be afforded training on livelihood skills and capital incentives and should be equipped with financial literacy through training and seminars to manage their hard-earned income properly.

Social workers, critical theory and the political sphere: addressing political misrecognition and marginalisation in the Republic of Ireland

Despite the traditional social justice mandate of social work, and critical and radical theoretical traditions that pursue egalitarian and just societies, the engagement of the social work academy with Irish politics has been underwhelming at best. While there are abstract analyses that address sociopolitical theory and ideological wrongdoings related to neoliberalist rationality, attention in social work academia to the nuts and bolts of everyday political life in Ireland, such as democratic party politics and electoral representation, leaves much to the imagination. This article therefore pursues a more grounded reading of social justice in Irish politics for social workers. The supporting proposition is that to effectively interject in political misrecognition and marginalisation, social workers must understand the present political state of play. Towards achieving this, Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition aids thematic critical commentary on the literature.

La Filosofía del derecho de Hegel: ¿Política, no Metafísica?

Perhaps unconsciously emulating the intention of John Rawls to turn liberalism into a purely political theory, without presuppositions or metaphysical pretensions, some contemporary authors propose to update the central approaches of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, but also to dispense it with its dependence on his Science of Logic. We will analyze whether this claim is possible, and for this we will focus especially on the methodological strategy used by Axel Honneth in his various works on the matter. Even recognizing the relative plausibility that such an undertaking can have, we will argue, however, not only that it is not possible to dispense with those metaphysical presuppositions, but that, well understood, they actually constitute the greatest richness of the most relevant ideas of the Philosophy of Right. We will make a differentiation between immediate, mediate and hermeneutical presuppositions, and this should show us the different levels of dependence between the two mentioned works of Hegel.

We Cannot Say What the Human Is: The Problem of Anthropology in Adorno’s Philosophy of Art

Abstract This article investigates a problem in Theodor W. Adorno’s thought: how can Adorno critique advanced capitalist societies for their dehumanizing tendencies while also refusing the possibility of defining the human? Motivating this inquiry is a renewed investigation of philosophical anthropology by thinkers like Axel Honneth and Jürgen Habermas, who explore positive theories of human limits and needs as the basis of social critique. As Adorno consistently refused to define the human on philosophical and political grounds, this article asks whether his work offers an unexamined alternative to philosophical anthropology’s revival. A reconstruction of Adorno’s position shows how Adorno displaces anthropological problems into his philosophy of art, where the principle of mimesis offers a potentially nonanthropological model of human potential. Yet it also reveals how Adorno’s refusal to directly interrogate philosophical anthropology leads him to implicitly prescribe a certain figure of the human, undermining the value of his resistance to anthropological definitions.

Axel Honneth: el conflicto social y los modos de la mirada. Apuntes para pensar el problema más allá del reconocimiento

In this paper we will address one of the forms that assume the social conflict, considering an everyday behavior: the look and the ways of representation that it produces. The beginning of our argumentation is marked by Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition. His contributions give a perspective that allow us to unite the analysis of socials struggles with the problem of the look. For this work we study how Honneth build an ethical approach about the look, from the ideas of recognition and inter-subjectivity. In that sense, practical behavior like social humiliation and social domination, materialized through the look, are read as the negative reverse of recognition. We seek to think the look inserted in the social conflict beyond recognition, because we defend the hypothesis that the notion of recognition, as proposed by Honneth, assumes normative assumptions that visualize conflict as oriented to the consolidation of a mediated understanding of one`s own personality and the self-affirmation of subject, as also assumes an evolutionary logic rationality. Once shown this, we will answer the question: how to understand/comprehend the problem of the look from a different perspective?

Recognition-based Action Research. Inspired by third generation critical theory and dialectic relationship theory

In action research the quality of the interpersonal relationship between the researcher and the practioners is significant, as it affects which knowledge about the problem explored it is possible to obtain, just as the problem itself affects how that relationship evolves. The problem and the interpersonal relationship are thus dialectically connected. Therefore, the action researcher must have a dual focus concerned with generating knowledge and development in both areas. With that in mind, this article develops Recognition-based Action Research, where Axel Honneth's critical, sociological perspective on society is combined with Anne-Lise Løvlie Schibbye's dialectical relationship perspective on interpersonal relationships: with both perspectives grounded in Georg W.F Hegel’s thoughts on recognition.

A política de reconhecimento e a teoria da justiça de Axel Honneth

A partir do conceito de reconhecimento de Axel Honneth, considerado como uma necessidade fundamental do ser-humano, apresenta-se o núcleo de uma teoria da justiça que procura especificar as condições intersubjetivas de autorrealização individual. Pretende-se articular uma conceção normativa da justiça com a análise sociológica das sociedades modernas, através da reconstrução normativa e ao colocar a ênfase na liberdade social, baseada na dimensão intersubjetiva das instituições de reconhecimento. A liberdade social supõe o acesso às instituições de reconhecimento. Apresenta-se uma teoria da justiça que analisa as instituições num sentido amplo, através da reconstrução das práticas e condições de reconhecimento já institucionalizadas.

Misrecognising Recognition. Foundations of a Critical Theory of Recognition

ABSTRACT According to Max Horkheimer, a critical theory of society has to fulfil two tasks: the elimination of social injustice and the critical reflection of its own conceptual means. Based on this definition, I argue that Axel Honneth’s critical theory of recognition is at risk of losing sight of the ambivalence of recognition which limits the scope of his analysis of social pathologies. By drawing on the concept of misrecognising recognition it can be shown that recognition itself is an ambivalent concept which can not only serve the purpose of self-realisation but also the purpose of self-subjection. Following the lead of Jean-Paul Sartre in this article I will unfold the concept of misrecognising recognition and put it at work to show how a variety of social pathologies of self-subjection can only be addressed if the ambivalence of recognition is taken into account.

Socialism as an Organic Democratic Form of Life: On Axel Honneth’s Project of a Renewal of Socialism Based on Social Freedom

ABSTRACT The article addresses Axel Honneth’s project of renewing the idea of ⁣⁣socialism based on the concept of social freedom. At first, it emphasises the historical and philosophical singularity of this project within the tradition of critical theory, and then the political potentials represented by the concept of social freedom, especially concerning the openness to several forms of social conflict and the possibility of democratising intimacy. The article argues, however, that Honneth’s proposal to conceive a socialist society as an organic whole undermines rather than enhances the attempt to revitalise socialism as democracy. Aimed at the functions of social integration, the organistic conception of society seeks harmony between the different social spheres (personal relations, economic structures, and political public sphere), which entails the risk of neglecting the intrinsic link between politics and conflict.

Recognition as a Philosophical Practice: From “Warring” Attitudes to Cooperative Projects

ABSTRACT What does it mean to practice a theory of recognition within the discipline of philosophy? Across an initially acrimonious French-German divide, Axel Honneth’s effort to recognise the value of contemporary French philosophy and social theory suggests that philosophy is a self-critical, outwardly oriented, and cooperative discipline. First, mobilising the idea of recognition in his own philosophical practise has permitted Honneth to notice non-deliberative aspects of social interaction that Habermas had overlooked, including the need for self-confidence (drawn from a “deconstructive” ethics of care) and the need for self-esteem (informed by Sartre’s and Foucault’s attention to the existential damage caused by denigration, and the nefarious effects of reproductive power). Second, although Honneth’s ascription of value to contemporary French theory also involves mis-recognition, his practice of recognition has nonetheless prompted philosophical cooperation among theorists who would not otherwise have engaged, encouraging French-influenced critical theorists to extend Honneth’s theory in ways that he had not anticipated. What emerges is an interpretation of philosophy as an ongoing intersubjective pursuit that attempts to respond to its own limitations through cooperative critique.