Axel Honneth's theory of recognition: A normative view of the social

Axel Honneth (Essen, 1949) is one of the most important authors in the field of contemporary social theory and a key figure in Critical Theory today. However, despite the international interest and debate sparked by his work, literature on Honneth is still relatively scarce in the Spanish-speaking world. Particularly striking is the absence of a monograph in Spanish that presents an organized exegesis of his proposals on recognition. This book aims precisely to fill this gap.

This research paper addresses Honneth's theory of recognition—one of the most outstanding approaches to renewing the normative conception of the social—from the perspective of the structuring of ties, identity, and normativity found within it. To this end, it critically examines how this author conceives of recognition—both at the micro level, as a particular relationship between individuals, and at the macro level, as a driver of social change and a constitutive element of the social in three distinct spheres. Its strengths and weaknesses are highlighted, its Hegelian roots are analyzed, and its application to issues such as some of the struggles for recognition in contemporary capitalism is outlined.