Critique and power? social critique and pathologies diagnosis in Axel Honneth

Author(s)

Nathalie de Almeida Bressiani

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2015-08-11

Examining board members

Ricardo Ribeiro Terra; Yara Adario Frateschi; Erick Calheiros de Lima; Rurion Soares Melo; Denilson Luis Werle

• Advisor: Ricardo Ribeiro Terra

Abstract

In Critique of Power, Axel Honneth argues that those who seek to realize the project of critical theory today must develop a conceptual framework able to comprehend both the structures of social domination and the social resources for its practical overcoming. Starting with a reconstruction of Honneths theoretical development until Struggle for Recognition, our first aim is to show that the theory of recognition corresponds to the author\'s attempt to fulfill these tasks. Pointing out, however, that his efforts at this time are concentrated on the tasks of reconstructing the normative dynamics of intersubjective relations and the structural human interest for recognition, we argue that Honneth ends up losing sight of the fact that power permeate social relations. Resuming, at this point, the criticisms directed at Honneth by various authors, we aim to show that his recognition theory, as presented in Struggle for Recognition, depends on a reductive understanding of power. Considering that, after his debate with Nancy Fraser, Honneth acknowledges this problem and reformulates important elements of his theory, we devote part of this thesis to an analysis of the different strategies deployed by Honneth with this purpose. By doing this, our goal is to show that even thou Honneth tries to account for the relationship between recognition and power, in his most recent texts, he seems to abandon the concept of social domination. Advocating, finally, for the critical project presented by Honneth in Critique of Power, will devote the last section of the thesis to discuss the work of three different representatives of a new generation of critical theorists, whose purpose seems to be exactly to realize it. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 10/08871-2 - Critique and power: deliberative democracy and diagnosis of social pathologies in Nancy Fraser
• Grantee: Nathalie de Almeida Bressiani
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate