Axel Honneth 
The I in We 
Studies in the Theory of Recognition

In this volume Axel Honneth deepens and develops his highly
influential theory of recognition, showing how it enables us both
to rethink the concept of justice and to offer a compelling account
of the relationship between social reproduction and individual
identity formation.

Drawing on his reassessment of Hegel’s practical philosophy,
Honneth argues that our conception of social justice should be
redirected from a preoccupation with the principles of distributing
goods to a focus on the measures for creating symmetrical relations
of recognition. This theoretical reorientation has far-reaching
implications for the theory of justice, as it obliges this theory
to engage directly with problems concerning the organization of
work and with the ideologies that stabilize relations of
domination.

In the final part of this volume Honneth shows how the theory of
recognition provides a fruitful and illuminating way of exploring
the relation between social reproduction and identity formation.
Rather than seeing groups as regressive social forms that threaten
the autonomy of the individual, Honneth argues that the
‘I’ is dependent on forms of social recognition
embodied in groups, since neither self-respect nor self-esteem can
be maintained without the supportive experience of practising
shared values in the group.

This important new book by one of the leading social philosophers
of our time will be of great interest to students and scholars in
philosophy, sociology, politics and the humanities and social
sciences generally.

Table of Content

Preface

I. Hegelian Roots

From Desire to Recognition: Hegel’s Grounding of
Self-Consciousness

The Realm of Actualized Freedom: Hegel’s Notion of a ‘Philosophy of
Right’

II. Systematic Consequences

The Fabric of Justice: On the Limits of Contemporary
Proceduralism

Labour and Recognition: A Redefinition

Recognition as Ideology: The Connection between Morality and
Power

Dissolutions of the Social: The Social Theory of Luc Boltanski and
Laurent Thévenot

Philosophy as Social Research: David Miller’s Theory of
Justice

III. Social and Theoretical Applications

Recognition between States: On the Moral Substrate of

International Relations

Organized Self-Realisation: Paradoxes of Individualisation

Paradoxes of Capitalist Modernisation: A Research Programme (with
Martin Hartmann)

IV. Psychoanalytical Ramifications

The Work of Negativity: A Recognition-Theoretical

Revision of Psychoanalysis

The I in the We: Recognition as a Driving Force of Group
Formation

Facets of the Presocial Self: A Rejoinder to Joel Whitebook

Disempowering Reality: Secular Forms of Consolation

About the author

Axel Honneth is Professor of Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt.