Axel Honneth | |
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 Honneth in 2016 | |
| Born | (1949-07-18)18 July 1949 (age 76) |
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| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
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Axel Honneth (/ˈhɒnɛt/;German:[ˈaksl̩ˈhɔnɛt]; born 18 July 1949) is a German philosopher who is the Professor forSocial Philosophy atGoethe University Frankfurt[4] and theJack B. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities in the department ofphilosophy atColumbia University.[5] He was also director of theInstitut für Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research) inFrankfurt am Main,Germany between 2001 and 2018.
Honneth was born inEssen,West Germany, on 18 July 1949, studied inBonn,Bochum,Berlin andMunich (underJürgen Habermas), and taught at theFree University of Berlin andthe New School before moving to the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University of Frankfurt in 1996. He also held the Spinoza Chair of Philosophy at theUniversity of Amsterdam in 1999.[6] Between 2001 and 2018 he was director of the Institute for Social Research, originally home to the so-calledFrankfurt School, at the University of Frankfurt.[7] Since 2011, he is also Jack B. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities at the department of philosophy atColumbia University in the City of New York.[8]
Honneth is co-editor of numerous specialist journals, including theDeutschen Zeitschrift für Philosophie, theEuropean Journal of Philosophy and the journalConstellations. From 2007 to 2017, Honneth was President of theInternationale Hegel-Vereinigung (International Hegel Association).[9][10]
Honneth's work focuses on social-political andmoral philosophy, especially relations ofpower,recognition, and respect. One of his core arguments is for the priority ofintersubjective relationships of recognition in understanding social relations. This includes non- and mis-recognition as a basis of social and interpersonal conflict. For instance, grievances regarding thedistribution of goods in society are ultimately struggles forrecognition justice.
His first main workThe Critique of Power: Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Theory explores the affinities between the Frankfurt School andMichel Foucault. In his second main workThe Struggle for Recognition: Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts, the recognition concept is derived mainly fromG. W. F. Hegel's early social philosophical works, but is supplemented byGeorge Herbert Mead'ssocial psychology,Jürgen Habermas' communicative ethics, andDonald Winnicott'sobject relations theory. Honneth's critical adaptation of these is the basis of his critical social theory, which attempts to remedy the deficits of previous approaches. In 2003, Honneth co-authoredRecognition or Redistribution? with thefeminist philosopherNancy Fraser, who criticizes the priority of ethical categories such as recognition over structural social-political categories such as redistribution in Honneth's thought. His recent workReification reformulates this key "Western Marxist" concept in terms of intersubjective relations of recognition and power. For Honneth, all forms of reification are due to intersubjectively based pathologies rather than the structural character of social systems such ascapitalism as argued byKarl Marx andGyörgy Lukács.
InThe Idea of Socialism, Honneth calls for a revision of socialist theory in order to make it relevant for the 21st century, based on a criticism of the socialist theory ofhistorical materialism, ignorance of political rights and socialdifferentiation in modern societies, and overemphasis on the working class as a revolutionary subject. In order to fully realize the three principles of theFrench Revolution, Honneth suggests three revisions: Replacing economic determinism with historical experimentation inspired byJohn Dewey, expanding social freedom – mutual dependence and cooperation among members of society – to the other spheres of modern society (i.e. the political and the private), as well as addressing all citizens of the democratic sphere.
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