Immanent Critique of Social Communication

Special Report: Around Axel Honneth. Recognition and Communication
On Some Potential of the Honnethian Approach
By Olivier Voirol
English

From his first writings, Axel Honneth situated his work in the framework of a reconstruction of the moral content of negative experience and the potential for conflict that was rooted therein. This project developed into a theory of struggles for recognition which, without focusing on the public sphere, proved fertile when applied to immanent critique of social communication. Critical scrutiny of forms of contempt, invisibility and reification were thus shown to stem from demands for recognition implicit in communication processes. In view of these potentialities, the “normative reconstruction” programme achieved these objectives, though with significant changes of direction.

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