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Recognition and Ambivalence brings together leading scholars in social and political philosophy to develop new perspectives on recognition and its role in social life. It begins with a debate between Honneth and Butler, the first sustained engagement between these two major thinkers on this subject. Contributions from both proponents and critics of theories of recognition further reflect upon and clarify the problems and challenges involved in theorizing the concept and its normative desirability. Together, they explore different routes toward a critical theory of recognition, departing from wholly positive or negative views to ask whether it is an essentially ambivalent phenomenon. Featuring original, systematic work in the philosophy of recognition, this book also provides a useful orientation to the key debates on this important topic.
List of contents
Introduction, by Heikki Ikäheimo, Kristina Lepold, and Titus Stahl
1. Recognition Between Power and Normativity: A Hegelian Critique of Judith Butler, by Axel Honneth
2. Recognition and the Social Bond: A Response to Axel Honneth, by Judith Butler
3. Intelligibility and Authority in Recognition: A Reply, by Axel Honneth
4. Recognition and Mediation: A Second Reply to Axel Honneth, by Judith Butler
5. Historicizing Recognition: From Ontology to Teleology, by Lois McNay
6. Recognizing Ambivalence: Honneth, Butler, and Philosophical Anthropology, by Amy Allen
7. How Should We Understand the Ambivalence of Recognition? Revisiting the Link Between Recognition and Subjection in the Works of Althusser and Butler, by Kristina Lepold
8. Recognition, Constitutive Domination, and Emancipation, by Titus Stahl
9. Return to Reification: An Attempt at Systematization, by Heikki Ikäheimo
10. Negativity in Recognition: Post-Freudian Legacies in Contemporary Critical Theory, by Jean-Philippe Deranty
11. Beyond Needs: Recognition, Conflict, and the Limits of Institutionalization, by Robin Celikates
12. Freedom, Equality, and Struggles of Recognition: Tully, Rancière, and the Agonistic Re-Orientation, by David Owen
Contributors
Index
About the author
Heikki Ikäheimo is senior lecturer in philosophy at UNSW Sydney.
Kristina Lepold is junior professor of social philosophy and critical theory at Humboldt University Berlin.
Titus Stahl is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Groningen.
Summary
This book brings together leading scholars in social and political philosophy to develop new perspectives on recognition and its role in social life. It begins with a debate between Axel Honneth and Judith Butler, the first sustained engagement between these two major thinkers on this subject.
Additional text
Recognition and Ambivalence explores key issues regarding the merits and problems of considering the concept of recognition as a primary driver of critical social theory. By encouraging the contributors to think through the potential ambivalences, and negative impact, of such a focus, the editors have provided a uniquely valuable volume that facilitates a nuanced and qualified defense of critical recognition theory by taking us beyond the current debates that have engaged supporters and detractors.
