Recognition And Freedom: On Honneth's "rerealization" Of Hegel's Practical Philosophy

From the late twentieth century,the economic,political and cultural fields of the western society exposed a series of problems in the development process.On the one hand,this is manifested as the unfair distribution of social resources,the widening of differences between rich and poor,and the continuous conflict between cultural organizations;on the other hand,it shows that the members of the society are psychologically empty,lonely and helpless.The academic circles generally attribute these problems to the overflow of liberalism.Contemporary neoliberalism follows the principle of classical liberalism,which makes the fields of social relations,including economy,politics and culture,be regarded as the strategic collection of subjects.When the functional meaning of the principle of freedom is increasingly enlarged,its normative connotation becomes more neglected,it brings the opposition and conflict between individual liberty and public good.In response to this situation,contemporary scholars represented by Rawls and Habermas intend to rely on Kant's practical philosophy to construct a rational,free and just social order.The disadvantage of this view is that there is an insurmountable gap between the universal ideal and the concrete social realities.In order to overcome this problem,some scholars turn their attention to Hegel.Hegel inherited and transcends Aristotle's classic philosophy of practice:on the one hand,he affirmed Aristotle's view of the unity of ethics and politics;on the other hand,the unity of the principle of modern subjective freedom and the classical practical philosophy is regarded as the highest purpose of practical philosophy,which is completed in Hegel's "objective spirit".In the present,in the process of the revival of Hegel's practical philosophy,Honneth's "reactualization" of his thought is particularly eye-catching..The purpose of Honneth's research is in contemporary context to achieve the highest ideal of Hegel's practical philosophy.In the negative sense,it gives a reasonable diagnosis and treatment of the existing social pathological phenomena;in a positive sense,it tries to realize the unity of individual freedom and public good,social justice and freedom.This article divides Honneth's "reactualization" of Hegel's practical philosophy into three phases.The core of the first phase is recognition,it is the possible condition for"reactualization".The second phase takes justice as the core.Through the creative interpretation of Philosophy of Right,Honneth completed the first attempt to"reactualization",gives a clear answer to the causes of social pathology and the connotation of social justice.The third phase takes freedom as the core.By virtue of the idea of social freedom,Honneth got rid of Hegel's concept and terminology on his restrictions and completed the idea of "actualization".This paper is divided into five parts to discuss the "reactualization" of Hegel's Thought.The first part introduces the background and premise of "reactualization".This part mainly contains two tasks:First,introduce the research situation of Hegel's practical philosophy,in order to illustrate the research atmosphere.Mainly introduces the views of Joachim Ritter,Ludwig Siep and Habermas.Ritter's research on Hegel's practical philosophy defines Honneth's basic understanding of Hegel's practical philosophy.Siep and Habermas are more concerned about Hegel's early thoughts.The former tries to understand Hegel's early thoughts from the perspective of intersubjectivity,the latter focuses on the understanding and interpretation of Hegel's recognition.Both of them can help us to better understand the similarities and differences between Honneth and Hegel's ideas.Second,show the research premise of the "reactualization".On the one hand,Honneth and Hegel have similar theoretical goals;On the other hand,it explains the negative approach and social ontology presupposition used in "reactualization".The main task of part two is to consider recognition as the fundamental princple of "reactualization".thus laying the foundation for the entire study.This part mainly discusses two aspects:First,it states how Hegel is able to achieve the unity of subjective freedom and ethical order through the concept of recognition,and to demonstrate the content of the concept of Hegel's recognition;Second,from the individual and social perspective to discuss Honneth's recognition theory,the requirements of individual self-fulfilling is regarded as the foundation of social development,thus establishing the moral logic of social development.In Honneth's view,the purpose of social development points to a "formal concept of ethical life",in which the individual self-fulfilling and social justice have been formally unified.On the basis of the principle of recognition,we can establish the formal ethical life,and then we can carry out substantive research on the "reactualization".The third part is the first attempt of "reactualization".which aims to solve the current problems by Hegel's practical philosophy.Here mainly contains two tasks:first,to explore the causes of social pathology;second,make specific provisions on social justice.In Philosophy of Right,subjective freedom and social institution in the objective spirit to complete the substantive unity.Honneth explains the objective spirit as normative social justice.Social justice means that the field of social interaction as a basic good can be equally opened to each member of society,so that each individual can obtain the necessary recognition.social pathology refers to individuals who due to subjective and objective reasons are unable or unwilling to participate in the social activities.This makes the individual's need for recognition can not be met,thus falling into "leiden am unbestimmtheit".In general,in the negative sense,social justice is the diagnosis and treatment of social pathology;in the positive sense,social justice will show itself as the various sections of ethics,through which the individual's right to freedom can be realized.The fourth part discusses the completion of "reactualization".This means that Honneth has absorbed the essence of Hegel's ideas and used the original concept to express it In Freedom's Right,Honneth first proposed the concept of social freedom,it goes beyond the abstract form of freedom,through it,the subjective individual freedom and the objective social institution are unified.In the process of the concept of social freedom,Honneth describes and compares the concepts of legal freedom,reflective freedom and social freedom In the course of the realization of social freedom,Honneth on the one hand to discuss the causes of the abstract concept of freedom;on the other hand,through the discussion of emotional,economic and political fields to show the subjective and objective conditions of social freedom.Furthermore,it gives some suggestions on how to realize the unity of individual freedom and social justice in the current social and political context.The fifth part discusses the contemporary effect of "reactualization".This includes two aspects:first,based on the recognition theory and social pathology to reflect the shortcomings of the contemporary communitarianism and liberalism.Honneth believes that both communitarianism and liberalism can not reasonably answer the question of the origin of social norms and the relationship between value norms and social reality.Second,consider the social freedom as the essence of socialism.This view comes from the critique of the early socialism.Honneth is opposed to equating socialism with the economic community,but understood it as a democratic way of life.In the present,the construction of socialism must pay attention to the power of the public sphere.