The Pathologies of Individual Freedom

The Pathologies of Individual Freedom PDF

Author: Axel Honneth

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 95

ISBN-13: 140083502X

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This is a penetrating reinterpretation and defense of Hegel's social theory as an alternative to reigning liberal notions of social justice. The eminent German philosopher Axel Honneth rereads Hegel's Philosophy of Right to show how it diagnoses the pathologies of the overcommitment to individual freedom that Honneth says underlies the ideas of Rawls and Habermas alike. Honneth argues that Hegel's theory contains an account of the psychological damage caused by placing too much emphasis on personal and moral freedom. Although these freedoms are crucial to the achievement of justice, they are insufficient and in themselves leave people vulnerable to loneliness, emptiness, and depression. Hegel argues that people must also find their freedom or "self-realization" through shared projects. Such projects involve the three institutions of ethical life--family, civil society, and the state--and provide the arena of a crucial third kind of freedom, which Honneth calls "communicative" freedom. A society is just only if it gives all of its members sufficient and equal opportunity to realize communicative freedom as well as personal and moral freedom.

Freedom's Right

Freedom's Right PDF

Author: Axel Honneth

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-03-11

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0745680062

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The theory of justice is one of the most intensely debated areas of contemporary philosophy. Most theories of justice, however, have only attained their high level of justification at great cost. By focusing on purely normative, abstract principles, they become detached from the sphere that constitutes their “field of application” - namely, social reality. Axel Honneth proposes a different approach. He seeks to derive the currently definitive criteria of social justice directly from the normative claims that have developed within Western liberal democratic societies. These criteria and these claims together make up what he terms “democratic ethical life”: a system of morally legitimate norms that are not only legally anchored, but also institutionally established. Honneth justifies this far-reaching endeavour by demonstrating that all essential spheres of action in Western societies share a single feature, as they all claim to realize a specific aspect of individual freedom. In the spirit of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and guided by the theory of recognition, Honneth shows how principles of individual freedom are generated which constitute the standard of justice in various concrete social spheres: personal relationships, economic activity in the market, and the political public sphere. Honneth seeks thereby to realize a very ambitious aim: to renew the theory of justice as an analysis of society.

Pathologies of Reason

Pathologies of Reason PDF

Author: Axel Honneth

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2009-05-05

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0231518374

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Axel Honneth has been instrumental in advancing the work of the Frankfurt School of critical theorists, rebuilding their effort to combine radical social and political analysis with rigorous philosophical inquiry. These eleven essays reclaim the relevant themes of the Frankfurt School, which counted Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, Franz Neumann, and Albrecht Wellmer as members. They also engage with Kant, Freud, Alexander Mitscherlich, and Michael Walzer, whose work on morality, history, democracy, and individuality intersects with the Frankfurt School's core concerns. Collected here for the first time in English, Honneth's essays pursue the unifying themes and theses that support the methodologies and thematics of critical social theory, and they address the possibilities of continuing this tradition through radically changed theoretical and social conditions. According to Honneth, there is a unity that underlies critical theory's multiple approaches: the way in which reason is both distorted and furthered in contemporary capitalist society. And while much is dead in the social and psychological doctrines of critical social theory, its central inquiries remain vitally relevant. Is social progress still possible after the horrors of the twentieth century? Does capitalism deform reason and, if so, in what respects? Can we justify the relationship between law and violence in secular terms, or is it inextricably bound to divine justice? How can we be free when we're subject to socialization in a highly complex and in many respects unfree society? For Honneth, suffering and moral struggle are departure points for a new "reconstructive" form of social criticism, one that is based solidly in the empirically grounded, interdisciplinary approach of the Frankfurt School.

Axel Honneth and the Critical Theory of Recognition

Axel Honneth and the Critical Theory of Recognition PDF

Author: Volker Schmitz

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-08-04

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 3319919806

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The critical theory of the Frankfurt School has undergone numerous and at times fundamental changes over the last ninety years. Since the late 1960s, it has been characterized primarily by Jürgen Habermas’s “communicative turn” and a focus on normative foundations. Today, that “second generation” exists side-by-side with a “third generation” represented most prominently by Axel Honneth’s turn toward recognition, ethical life, and the normative reconstruction of social institutions. This volume brings together critical voices on the state and direction of Frankfurt School theory today by examining Honneth’s theory in light of both current challenges and the intellectual and political ambitions that have shaped the tradition from its beginning. United in their strong commitment to critical scholarship, the authors collected here approach Honneth’s work from different backgrounds, employ a wide variety of methodologies, and write in different genres, ranging from the sober scholarly analysis to programmatic and political appeals. The collective aim of these reflections is not to reject Honneth’s theory but to build upon his work and incorporate his themes of recognition and social freedom into a new project of critical theory that can prove adequate to the political and social crises of our time.

What Is Individual Freedom?

What Is Individual Freedom? PDF

Author: Joshua Turner

Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

Published: 2019-07-15

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13: 1538342790

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Individual freedom is the backbone of our democratic system, but it's often misinterpreted as "doing whatever you want." This book takes an in-depth look at how individual freedoms are critical to a vibrant and functioning democracy. The text also highlights how some decisions made in government end up meaning more freedom for some but less for others. Students are shown the difference between freedom to do things and freedom from the actions of others. Readers will also learn how some of the freedoms we take for granted are critical to the way our society works.

Individualisation at Work

Individualisation at Work PDF

Author: Dr Norbert Ebert

Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1409461645

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Individualisation has become an ambiguous, but defining feature of late modern societies and while it is in part characterised by an increase in individual autonomy and a sense of liberation, individuals are equally required to negotiate a fragmented, pluralised and ambiguous social order by themselves. This book sheds light on the processes and nature of contemporary individualisation, specifically exploring the manner in which it unfolds under conditions of contemporary network capitalism. With attention to the modern workplace, where the individual and the organisation meet directly, but also in the wider community, Individualisation at Work reveals individualisation to become an ideological and ambiguous process of liberation, as conditions of marketisation and corporatisation transform the emancipatory qualities and motivations that define individualisation into a means for the coordination and reproduction of systemic imperatives, which are realised by individuals' qualities and capacities for self-realisation. A rigorous theoretical study, illustrated with interview material gathered amongst managers from internationally operating corporations, this book will appeal to sociologists with interests in work and organisations and the theory of contemporary modernity.

Recognition and Freedom

Recognition and Freedom PDF

Author: Jonas Jakobsen

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-01-27

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9004287345

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Recognition and Freedom brings together leading international scholars to discuss the political thought of the social philosopher Axel Honneth. In addition to providing an introduction to Honneth’s political thought, the book examines topics such as education, solidarity, multiculturalism, agonism, neo-liberalism and the ways in which these issues challenge core aspects of liberal democracies. The book includes an interview with Axel Honneth in the light of his most recent work, Freedom’s Right, as well as an essay by him previously unpublished in English.

The Poverty of Our Freedom

The Poverty of Our Freedom PDF

Author: Axel Honneth

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2023-06-13

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1509556346

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There is no normative concept more appealing today than the idea of individual freedom. Political party manifestos are drawn up, legal reforms are defended, military interventions are undertaken, even decisions in personal relationships are justified – all in the name of individual freedom. But our understanding of freedom is impoverished if we try to grasp its essence merely in terms of the subjective rights of the individual. In his new book, Axel Honneth shows that we still have a lot to learn from the tradition of philosophy about a rational concept of freedom. Honneth begins by re-examining the work of Hegel and Marx in order to clarify the concept of freedom. He then explores various social problem areas in which the ideals of freedom are directly confronted by contemporary obstacles. Honneth ends by examining potential forces which could give new impetus to our struggle for freedom. This new book by one of the leading social and political philosophers writing today will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, political theory, social theory, and the social sciences and humanities generally.

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