Struggle for Recognition

Author: Honneth
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Unlike works that merely focus on explanations of some phenomena within the Young Hegel's theory of recognition, this book elucidates a social theory with normative content based on Young Hegel's "struggle for recognition" model. This model is grounded in three propositions: the formation of the practical self relies on intersubjective recognition; in the process of subjectivity formation, there exist three forms of recognition: love, law, and solidarity; these three forms of recognition follow a developmental logic mediated by stages of moral struggle. Drawing on Mead's social psychology, this book achieves an empirical transformation of Hegel's concept, forming the idea of a social critical theory according to which, to explain social change processes, one must adopt the normative demands inherent in the relationships of mutual recognition.