ABSTRACT
Sociality shapes cognition, values, rights and, definitively, action. The self develops in relation to others; therefore, a proper understanding of the genesis and development of social phenomena is usefully based on a cognitive and relational perspective. This paper develops the application of the philosophical grounds of recognition to economic exchanges through the theorization of the legal elements behind economic processes. It describes that there is no intention to deny the relevance of redistribution or to criticize the logics of arguments in favour of redistribution that are the foundation of social democracy – from Rawls to van Parijs or Kolm. This chapter provides the 'market fundamentalist' vision of social democracy that is rejected in favour of a more critical view of how markets work. In order to accomplish that change, the simplistic vision of human preferences and property rights must be abandoned in favour of a philosophical background focussing on social cognition, recognition and the ends of economic processes.
