Axel Honneth 
The Poverty of Our Freedom 
Essays 2012 – 2019

There is no normative concept more appealing today than the idea of individual freedom. Political party manifestos are drawn up, legal reforms are defended, military interventions are undertaken, even decisions in personal relationships are justified – all in the name of individual freedom. But our understanding of freedom is impoverished if we try to grasp its essence merely in terms of the subjective rights of the individual.

In his new book, Axel Honneth shows that we still have a lot to learn from the tradition of philosophy about a rational concept of freedom. Honneth begins by re-examining the work of Hegel and Marx in order to clarify the concept of freedom. He then explores various social problem areas in which the ideals of freedom are directly confronted by contemporary obstacles. Honneth ends by examining potential forces which could give new impetus to our struggle for freedom.

This new book by one of the leading social and political philosophers writing today will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, political theory, social theory, and the social sciences and humanities generally.

Table of Content

Acknowledgements

Preface

Part I: Forms of Social Freedom

1. The Depths of Recognition

The legacy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

2. On the Poverty of Our Freedom

Relevance and limits of the Hegelian ethical system

3. The Normativity of Ethical Life

4. Hegel and Marx

A reassessment after one century

5. Economy or Society?

The greatness and limits of Marx’s theory of capitalism

6. Three, Not Two Concepts of Liberty

A proposal to enlarge our moral self-understanding

Part II: Deformations of Social Freedom

7. The Diseases of Society

Approaching a nearly impossible concept

8. Education and the Democratic Public Sphere

A neglected chapter of political philosophy

9. Democracy and the Division of Labour

A blind spot in political philosophy

10. Childhood

Inconsistencies in our liberal imagination

Part III. Sources of Social Freedom

11. Denaturalizations of the Lifeworld

On the threefold use of the humanities

12. Is There an Emancipatory Interest?

An attempt to answer critical theory’s most fundamental question

13. A History of Moral Self-Correction

Tracing European solidarity

Notes

Index

About the author

Axel Honneth is Jack C. Weinstein Professor of the Humanities at the Department of Philosophy of Columbia University.