ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a critical perspective on the harms of global poverty in terms of Axel Honneth's theory of antecedent recognition and his post-Marxist conception of reification. These key concepts provide a stronger initial critique of inaction in the face of global poverty than Honneth's substantive recognition theory. Drawing on the lack of involvement experienced by many people in the comparatively affluent world as regards global causes, and conceiving the failure to react to global poverty as the ‘forgetfulness of recognition’ in Honneth's phrase, an interpretation of Honneth's idea of reification as involving ‘fictive’ rather than literal forgetfulness is suggested. The chapter finally utilises Honneth's concept to raise a critique of a well-known approach to the alleviation of world poverty, namely Peter Singer's utilitarian theory.
