The Struggle for Recognition: Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts

In this major book, Honneth argues that the ‘struggle for recognition’ is and should be at the center of social conflicts.Honneth examines the arguments put forward by Hegel in his Jena writings and situates them against the background of modern philosophy’s conception of human life as a struggle for existence. He shows how the notion of the struggle for recognition changes in Hegel’s work as he moves from an intersubjective paradigm to one based on consciousness.Drawing on Marx, Sorel and Sartre, he examines the importance of the struggle for recognition and of the moral basis of interaction in human conflicts. Finally, he discusses the relation between the recognition model and conceptions of modernity, the normative basis of social theory, and the possibility of mediating between Kant and Hegel.The Struggle for Recognition draws together a wide variety of themes and concerns, moving smoothly between moral philosophy and social theory. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in this central aspect of Hegel’s thought and, more broadly, in critical theory and social philosophy.