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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.
List of contents
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.
Summary
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.
Report
"This collection of superbly translated essays demonstrates once again that Axel Honneth is not only an academic philosopher of the first rank but also a public intellectual of international significance. The astounding range of essays included here - on topics from the contradictions in our understanding of childhood to the history of European solidarity to the relation between education and democracy - will be of supreme interest to philosophers and non-philosophers alike who have some inkling of the poverty of both our dominant conceptions of freedom and of the social institutions that are grounded in them."
Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College, Columbia University
"These powerful and incisive essays are a major contribution to the contemporary struggle against fetishized conceptions of individual freedom. Their relevance in a world trying desperately to escape the impasse of neoliberalism is clear."
Raymond Geuss, Professor (Emeritus), University of Cambridge
