Redistribution or Recognition?: A Political-Philosophical Exchange

by Nancy Fraser, Axel Honneth, Joel Golb, James Ingram, Christiane Wilke

Overview

“Recognition” has become a veritable keyword of our time, but its relation to “redistribution” remains undertheorized. This volume remedies the lacuna by staging a sustained debate between two philosophers, one North American, the other European, who hold different views of the matter. Highly attuned to contemporary politics, the exchange between Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth constitutes a rigorous dialogue on moral philosophy, social theory, and the best way to conceptualize capitalist society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859844922
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	01/17/2004
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Nancy Fraser is Loeb Professor of Philosophy and Politics at the New School for Social Research, Einstein Fellow of the city of Berlin, and holder of the “Global Justice” Chair at the Collège d’études mondiales in Paris. Her books include Redistribution or Recognition; Adding Insult to Injury; Scales of Justice; Justice Interruptus; and Unruly Practices.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Introduction: Redistribution or Recognition?	1
1	Social Justice in the Age of Identity Politics: Redistribution, Recognition, and Participation	7
I.	Redistribution or Recognition? A Critique of Justice Truncated	9
II.	Integrating Redistribution and Recognition: Problems in Moral Philosophy	26
III.	Social-Theoretical Issues: On Class and Status in Capitalist Society	48
IV.	Political-Theoretical Issues: Institutionalizing Democratic Justice	70
V.	Concluding Conjunctural Reflections: Post-Fordism, Postcommunism, and Globalization	88
2	Redistribution as Recognition: A Response to Nancy Fraser	110
I.	On the Phenomenology of Experiences of Social Injustice	114
II.	The Capitalist Recognition Order and Conflicts over Distribution	135
III.	Recognition and Social Justice	160
3	Distorted Beyond All Recognition: A Rejoinder to Axel Honneth	198
I.	On the Place of Experience in Critical Theory: Against the Reduction of Political Sociology to Moral Psychology	201
II.	On the Cultural Turn in Social Theory: Against the Reduction of Capitalist Society to its Recognition Order	211
III.	On Liberal Equality: Against the Reduction of Justice to an Ethics of Intact Identity	222
4	The Point of Recognition: A Rejoinder to the Rejoinder	237
I.	Critical Social Theory and Immanent Transcendence	238
II.	Capitalism and Culture: Social Integration, System Integration, and Perspectival Dualism	248
III.	History and Normativity: On the Limits of Deontology	256
	Index	269

What People are Saying About This

Etienne Balibar

In this exciting dialogue, Nancy Fraser and Alex Honneth do not simply explore with perfect conceptual rigor the analogies and tensions of the paradigms of 'equal distributrion' and 'struggle for recognition.' They also demonstrate why engaged theory matters for collective practice. Their speculative effort will set the agenda for transnational debates of vital importance.

Judith Butler

A carefully wrought and provocative debate between philosophers with strong commitments to asking what a more just social life might be. This text will doubtless produce a spate of new and important scholarship in critical theory in its wake.

Simon Critchley

In this fascinating volume, two of the major theorists of our time battle it out over the question of redistribution versus recognition. The stakes are high: how might a critical theory of capitalist society be revivified in a manner that unites philosophy, politics, and social theory. This is engaged theoretical debate of the highest level.

Editorial Reviews

A carefully wrought and provocative debate between philosophers with strong commitments to asking what a more just social life might be. This text will doubtless produce a spate of new and important scholarship in critical theory in its wake.”
—Judith Butler

“In this exciting dialogue, Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth do not simply explore with perfect conceptual rigor the analogies and tensions of the paradigms of ‘equal distributrion’ and ‘struggle for recognition.’ They also demonstrate why engaged theory matters for collective practice. Their speculative effort will set the agenda for transnational debates of vital importance.”
—Etienne Balibar

“In this fascinating volume, two of the major theorists of our time battle it out over the question of redistribution versus recognition. The stakes are high: how might a critical theory of capitalist society be revivified in a manner that unites philosophy, politics, and social theory. This is engaged theoretical debate of the highest level.”
—Simon Critchley

From the Publisher