A Study On Honneth’s Recognition Theory

Axel Honneth is the German famous society theoretician,the third generation central figure of the Frankfurt School,and the present leader of Frankfurt University Institute of Social Research.His recognition theory has a great significance to the development of the Social Critical Theory,and it has caused fierce reaction in the academic field.The existing problem of Social Critical Theory is the lack of normative and empirical basis.Honneth began his research with human social interaction.From the intersubjectivity standpoint,Honneth has critically absorbed the “struggle for recognition” theory of the Hegel’s Jena times.And he has provided empirical basis for recognition theory by the Mead’s social psychology.Honneth understood oneself from the perspective of the Universalize Other,and realized the social reconstruction of recognition theory.In the process of reconstructing “struggle for recognition”,Honneth demonstrated the main content of recognition and the main content of contempt.Honneth divided the recognition into three forms: love,law and unity and proposed three contempts as: violence,deprival of rights and insult.He analyzed the relationship between recognition and contempt,and researched the relationship between contempt and struggle.Honneth set a relatively fair ethics,formal target,and implied that the ultimate goal of social development is to realize the integrity of people.And the whole theory reflects Honneth standardized the development of the society and people by recognition logic,and provided normative basis to the recognition theory.From the ethical perspective,Honneth diagnosed Capitalist society,and understood social conflicts as social disorder.Honneth identified the motives of conflicts as ethical damage that was caused by contempt experience.He set the “recognition” as the normative basis,set the formal concept of “good life” as the normative aim,and wanted to achieve the integration of realizing their integrity and achieving the common good.Honneth want to form a proper social order by set the fair recognition order and the form goals,which can be used to standardize the development of the society and people,to promote the shift to the political ethics in Social Critical Theory.Honneth started argument with Nancy Fraser about the issues of reallocation and recognition.He proposed that reallocation belong to recognition and reallocation conflicts be rooted in the fact that individual value has not been recognized in society.Honneth constructed normative monism based on ethics,including such multiple justices as love,law and solidarity,which has resulted in the significance in both social pathology and political ethics,deepened the research on recognition theory,promoted the development social critical theory,broadened the research direction of Marxism and helped to settle social conflicts.But Honneth attached too much importance to language communication and cultural morality,so that he ignored social practice,separated the relationship between morality and materiality,weakened the criticism,and made “recognition” and “good life” function only as formal code without enough social coercive force,aggravating the idealism of recognition theory.