The struggle for recognition: the moral grammar of social conflicts

Abstract

Using the young Hegel's "struggle for recognition" as a basis, Honneth (political philosophy, Free University of Berlin) has written a remarkable book. In it, he develops the foundations for a social theory with normative content. Moving fluently between Continental and Anglo-American intellectual traditions, Honneth draws on the work of Jürgen Habermas (Theory and Practice, CH, Jun'74), Charles Taylor (The Ethics of Authenticity, 1992), and G.H. Mead (Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, 1934). The struggle for recognition, Honneth argues, takes three forms: love, formal rights, and "solidarity." Part of the power of Honneth's analysis lies in showing that social relations of symmetrical esteem between autonomous individuals are a prerequisite for social solidarity; i.e., felt concern for what is individual and particular about others. To esteem others, then, entails viewing them in the light of values that acknowledge their abilities and traits as significant for shared action. Honneth does not so much steer between as integrate the demand for both "thick" Aristotelian theories of ethics and "thin" Kantian theories. Honneth's book is accessible to--and deserving of--a wide readership. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above and the general reader.