Honneth, Recognition Theory "explore

Axel Honneth was representative scholar in third generation of Frankfurt School. The Struggle for Recognition form G.W.F .Hegel 's early social philosophical works was inherited by him. Materialistic transform was carried out in the help of social psychology from G.H. Mead. As a result, three different Recognition Forms(Love, Rights and Solidarity) were proposed by Axel Honneth, a social theory with normative content was provided, the ideal to seek Human integrity and achieve Good society was expressed. On the one hand, the Recognition theory could remedy the deficiency existed in theories of first and second Frankfurt School, then the theory of criticism and recognition were approved. On the other hand, contradictions and statements in present capitalist society were reflected on some degree.The paper was based on positions, views and methods of Marxist philosophy. To carry out the research works, historical investigation and logical analysis were unified, and text analysis and theoretical demonstration were combined. Social and actual background, theorical origin and logical frame of Recognition theory by Axel Honneth were investigated. Moreover, a more deeper interpretation focus not only on integration of this theory but also on its essence was carried out. Finally, the Recognition theory was judged objectively and fairly to express its actual value. In the part I of the paper, the origination and progress of Recognition theory of Axel Honneth were introduced, the social background of the theory was analyzed, which were capitalist prosperity and drastic changes in Eastern Europe in the middle and later of twentieth century. The inheriting, sublimation and innovation of the theory based on Frankfurt School were explained and ideological origins were analyzed.The concept of Recognition plays a very important role in Honneth's theory, so Recognition was interpretated focus on connotations and characters from semantics theory and theoretical perspective. Furthermore, the preconditions of recognition, the three form(Love, Rights and Solidarity) of recognition, the appeals of recognition, the objectives of recognition and the normative contents of recognition in this theory were analyzed to introduce the frame of theory created by Honneth.In the part III of the paper, theoretical system of Honneth was discussed focus on human integrity, social development view and plural justice theory to express a particular view on self-realization, social development and justice of Honneth.In the part IV of the paper, moral motivation of social struggle, behavior pattern of recognition and plural justice theory were discussed based on marxist historical materialism, and the importance and deficiency of the theory were explained.According to above research works, the following conclusions were introduced. Firstly, Honneth's theory inherited the characters of Critical Theory by Frankfurt School, and paid more attentions to human dignity which was different to previous theories. Its very helpful to discuss how we could achieve the happiness and satisfaction under present social condition with high technology and wealth. Secondly, Struggle for Recognition was emphasized by Honneth in his theory. It has some positive influence because the effect of moral motivation in society development was stressed. But on the other hand, the theory has some limitation because the moral struggle was recognized as source of social struggle mistakenly and the relation between moral struggle and basic social contradiction was transposed. Thirdly, Honneth expressed the importance of reasonable communication between human beings to development of human, and introduced three behavior patterns and essence of ideal society. The theory of Honneth was perfect on some degree, but it was too abstractive to fit to reality. As a result, the practical value of the theory was decreased.In Recognition theory of Honneth, the morality and self-realization were emphasized. A new method to study the reasonability of society and development of human was approved. Furthermore, the research field of marxist theory was broadened.