ABSTRACT
According to Kojève, the DIALECTIC of the master and the slave is the inevitable result of the fact that human DESIRE is the desire for recognition. In order to achieve recognition, the subject must impose the idea that he has of himself on an other. However, since this other also desires recognition, he also must do the same, and hence the subject is forced to engage in combat with the other. This fight for recognition, for ‘pure prestige’ (Kojève, 1947:7; see S1, 223) must be a ‘fight to the death’, since it is only by risking his life for the sake of recognition that one can prove that he is truly human. However, the combat must in fact stop short of the death of either combatant, since recognition can only be granted by a living being. Thus the struggle ends when one of the two gives up his desire for recognition and surrenders to the other; the vanquished one recognises the victor as his ‘master’ and becomes his ‘slave’. In fact, human society is only possible because some human beings accept being slaves instead of fighting to the death; a community of masters would be impossible.
