The I in We

In this volume Axel Honneth deepens and develops his highlyinfluential theory of recognition, showing how it enables us bothto rethink the concept of justice and to offer a compelling accountof the relationship between social reproduction and individualidentity formation. Drawing on his reassessment of Hegel's practical philosophy,Honneth argues that our conception of social justice should beredirected from a preoccupation with the principles of distributinggoods to a focus on the measures for creating symmetrical relationsof recognition. This theoretical reorientation has far-reachingimplications for the theory of justice, as it obliges this theoryto engage directly with problems concerning the organization ofwork and with the ideologies that stabilize relations ofdomination. In the final part of this volume Honneth shows how the theory ofrecognition provides a fruitful and illuminating way of exploringthe relation between social reproduction and identity formation.Rather than seeing groups as regressive social forms that threatenthe autonomy of the individual, Honneth argues that the'I' is dependent on forms of social recognitionembodied in groups, since neither self-respect nor self-esteem canbe maintained without the supportive experience of practisingshared values in the group. This important new book by one of the leading social philosophersof our time will be of great interest to students and scholars inphilosophy, sociology, politics and the humanities and socialsciences generally.