Recognition: A Chapter in the History of European Ideas

by Axel Honneth

Overview

The idea that we are mutually dependent on the recognition of our peers is at least as old as modernity. Across Europe, this idea has been understood in different ways from the very beginning, according to each country's different cultural and political conditions. This stimulating study explores the complex history and multiple associations of the idea of 'Recognition' in Britain, France and Germany. Demonstrating the role of 'recognition' in the production of important political ideas, Axel Honneth explores how our dependence on the recognition of others is sometimes viewed as the source of all modern, egalitarian morality, sometimes as a means for fostering socially beneficial behavior, and sometimes as a threat to 'true' individuality. By exploring this fundamental concept in our modern political and social self-understanding, Honneth thus offers an alternative view of the philosophical discourse of modernity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108819305
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/22/2020
Series:	The Seeley Lectures
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Axel Honneth is the Jack C. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities in the Philosophy Department at Columbia University. He was previously Director of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, between 2001 and 2018, founded by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. He is the author of works in German and English, including The Struggle for Recognition (1994) and Freedom's Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life (2014).

Table of Contents

1. Methodological Remarks on the History of Ideas vs. The History of Concepts; 2. From Rousseau to Sartre: Recognition and the Loss of Self; 3. From Hume to Mill: Recognition and Self-Control; 4. From Kant to Hegel: Recognition and Self-Determination; 5. A Historical Comparison of Recognition: An Attempt at a Systematic Summary.