The theory of justice is one of the most intensely debated areas of contemporary philosophy. Most theories of justice, however, have only attained their high level of justification at great cost. By focusing on purely normative, abstract principles, they become detached from the sphere that constitutes their “field of application” - namely, social reality.
Axel Honneth proposes a different approach. He seeks to derive the currently definitive criteria of social justice directly from the normative claims that have developed within Western liberal democratic societies. These criteria and these claims together make up what he terms “democratic ethical life”: a system of morally legitimate norms that are not only legally anchored, but also institutionally established.
Honneth justifies this far-reaching endeavour by demonstrating that all essential spheres of action in Western societies share a single feature, as they all claim to realize a specific aspect of individual freedom. In the spirit of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and guided by the theory of recognition, Honneth shows how principles of individual freedom are generated which constitute the standard of justice in various concrete social spheres: personal relationships, economic activity in the market, and the political public sphere. Honneth seeks thereby to realize a very ambitious aim: to renew the theory of justice as an analysis of society.
About the Author
Axel Honneth is Professor of Philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, and at Columbia University, New York. His many books in English include The Struggle for Recognition and Disrespect: The Normative Foundations of Critical Theory.
Features
This is a major new book by one of the leading social philosophers of our time
The book deals with the theory of justice Ð one of the most widely-discussed areas of contemporary philosophy
Honneth argues that existing theories of justice, by focusing on abstract normative principles, become detached from social reality
To overcome this limitation, he seeks to derive criteria of social justice from the normative claims that have emerged in Western democratic societies, showing that they realize a specific aspect of individual freedom
This book thereby offers a very original and ambitious theory of justice as an analysis of society
This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in philosophy, sociology, politics and the humanities and social sciences generally
