Towards a Realistic Approach of Human Dignity and Progression

Re-thinking the Critical Theorist’s Position by Axel Honneth

Abstract

This study examines Axel Honneth’s works about the theory of recognition, primarily on the grounds of the book „Umverteilung oder Anerkennung?” written by Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth in 2003. First, I outline the tradition of critical theory from Lukács to Habermas against which Honneth defines his own position. Second, I present the social-cultural context (the „bourgeois-capitalist order of recognition”), in the context of which Honneth embraces his principles of justice. 

After that I analyse Honneth’s conception of justice from the pespectives of two questions. On the one hand: can we gain reliable criteria of justice through the analysis of real recognition processes and interactions? On the other hand: can all of the tipical harms of modern people be embraced in the context of individualized concept of recognition? I try to answer both questions from the aspect of two models of Honneth’s critical theory: from the aspect of a theory which emphasizes the importance of human dignity and another one that is based on a conception of a social progression.