ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development of Axel Honneth's theory of recognition and considers some open questions about it. It focuses particularly on the dispute between Honneth and Nancy Fraser about whether recognition or redistribution should be at the center of critical social theory, and on some conceptual difficulties with social esteem in the economic sphere. Honneth suggests that individual conceptions of self-realization come to take the place of a collective ethical self-understanding. The argument is that individuals contribute to socially shared goals through their individually chosen form of self-realization, and for that they are accorded social esteem. Honneth characterizes the form of social recognition expressed through social esteem as one of solidarity. Honneth’s analysis of modern capitalism as a recognition order is one of the greatest achievements of his theory of recognition. Honneth seems to move in the direction of a weaker argument, which stresses the fact that economic action is embedded in a moral framework.
