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The Pathologies of Individual Freedom: Hegel's Social Theory

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Pathologies of Individual Freedom: Hegel's Social Theory
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Axel Honneth
Translated by Ladislaus Loeb
SeriesPrinceton Monographs in Philosophy
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:96
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140
Category/GenreWestern philosophy - c 1600 to c 1900
Social and political philosophy
ISBN/Barcode 9780691118062
ClassificationsDewey:193
Audience
Undergraduate
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Professional & Vocational

Publishing Details

Publisher Princeton University Press
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publication Date 21 February 2010
Publication Country United States

Description

This is a penetrating reinterpretation and defense of Hegel's social theory as an alternative to reigning liberal notions of social justice. The eminent German philosopher Axel Honneth rereads Hegel's Philosophy of Right to show how it diagnoses the pathologies of the overcommitment to individual freedom that Honneth says underlies the ideas of Rawls and Habermas alike. Honneth argues that Hegel's theory contains an account of the psychological damage caused by placing too much emphasis on personal and moral freedom. Although these freedoms are crucial to the achievement of justice, they are insufficient and in themselves leave people vulnerable to loneliness, emptiness, and depression. Hegel argues that people must also find their freedom or "self-realization" through shared projects. Such projects involve the three institutions of ethical life--family, civil society, and the state--and provide the arena of a crucial third kind of freedom, which Honneth calls "communicative" freedom. A society is just only if it gives all of its members sufficient and equal opportunity to realize communicative freedom as well as personal and moral freedom.

Author Biography

Axel Honneth is professor of social philosophy at Goethe University and director of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main. His many books include "Pathologies of Reason, Reification, The Struggle for Recognition", and "The Critique of Power".

Reviews

"Axel Honneth's book is stimulating, insightful, philosophically interesting, and analytically sophisticated. Its main contribution lies in its sympathetic, philosophically acute reconstruction of Hegel's position on individual freedom, which is made with an eye to lending it contemporary relevance. The book succeeds admirably and makes a great contribution to the English-language literature on Hegel."-Fred Neuhouser, Barnard College