Axel Honneth's Theory of Reification and Recognition

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  • アクセル・ホネットの物化と承認の理論
  • アクセル ・ ホネット ノ ブツカ ト ショウニン ノ リロン

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Axel Honneth is a German social philosopher in the “third generation” of the Frankfurt School. He published a book Reification: A Recognition-Theoretical View . He intends to add actuality once again to the theory of objectification that was established by Marx and developed by Lukacs. Thereby, Honneth reactualizes reification in a rather unique way. A salient feature of Honneth’s theory is in the understanding of reification as recognition oblivion. Specifically, he reinterprets Lukacs’ theory and applies the reinterpreted theory to the concept of reification on the basis of Honneth’s original concept of recognition. However, his peculiar concept of reification is fraught with problems, because it excludes a capitalist viewpoint on the sphere of commodity exchange from the theory of objectification that was formulated by Marx and Lukacs, and also because Honneth attempts to expand the concept of the mutual recognition between individuals which takes place in the social dimension into a concept of recognition, in disregard of cognition, that takes place between individuals and their environmental world. In doing so, Honneth is reinterpreting Lukacs’ theory on the levels of individuals and philosophical anthropology. The apparently intentional reinterpretation and expansion of the key concept of Lukacs’ theory by Honneth seems to result in a diminished significance of the theory of objectification in social criticism. In light of this, this paper will review the basic concept of the theory of objectification developed by Marx and Lukacs with the aim of identifying and analyzing problems in Honneth’s theory of reification and recognition.

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