Freedom's Right: The Social Foundations of Democratic Life

Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-231-16246-3
Verlag: COLUMBIA UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 448 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 231 mm, Gewicht: 780 g

Reihe: New Directions in Critical The

Theories of justice often fixate on purely normative, abstract principles unrelated to real-world situations. The philosopher and theorist Axel Honneth addresses this disconnect, and constructs a theory of justice derived from the normative claims of Western liberal-democratic societies and anchored in morally legitimate laws and institutionally established practices.

Honneth's paradigm which he terms "a democratic ethical life" draws on the spirit of Hegel's Philosophy of Right and his own theory of recognition, demonstrating how concrete social spheres generate the principles of individual freedom and a standard for what is just. Using social analysis to re-found a more grounded theory of justice, he argues that all crucial actions in Western civilization, whether in personal relationships, market-induced economic activities, or the public forum of politics, share one defining characteristic: they require the realization of a particular aspect of individual freedom. This fundamental truth informs the guiding principles of justice, grounding and enabling a wide-ranging reconsideration of its nature and application.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Honneth, Axel

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 20./21. Jahrhundert
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Gesellschaftstheorie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Geschichte der Soziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Marxismus, Kommunismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

ForewordIntroduction: A Theory of Justice as an Analysis of SocietyPart I. Historical Background: The Right to Freedom1. Negative Freedom and the Social Contract2. Reflexive Freedom and Its Conception of Justice3. Social Freedom and the Doctrine of Ethical LifeTransition: The Idea of Democratic Ethical LifePart II. The Possibility of Freedom4. Legal Freedom5. Moral FreedomPart III. The Reality of Freedom6. Social FreedomNotesIndex

Über Autor(innen)

Axel Honneth is professor of philosophy at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt and the Jack C. Weinstein Professor for the Humanities at Columbia University. He is the author of many books, including Pathologies of Reason: On the Legacy of Critical Theory; The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts; Philosophical Interventions in the Unfinished Project of Enlightenment; and The Critique of Power: Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Theory.