The Pathologies of Individual Freedom: Hegel's Social Theory: 30 (Princeton Monographs in Philosophy)

97 Pages·2010·1.321 MB·English

by  Axel Honneth

The PaThologies of
individual freedom
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in PhilosoPhy
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the Princeton Monographs in Philosophy series offers short
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The Apologetics of Evil: The Case of Iago, by Richard Raatzsch
Social Conventions: From Language to Law, by Andrei Marmor
The Pathologies of Individual Freedom: Hegel’s Social Theory,
by Axel Honneth
The PaThologies of
individual freedom
hegel’s soCial TheorY
xel Honneth
A
Translated from the German
by Ladislaus Löb
PrinCeTon universiTY Press
PrinCeTon and oXford
copyright 2001 © by Philipp reclam jun. gmbh&co., stuttgart
english translation copyright 2010 © by Princeton University Press
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library of congress cataloging-in-Publication Data
honneth, axel, 1949–
the pathologies of individual freedom : hegel’s social theory /
axel honneth ; translated from the german by ladislaus löb.
p. cm. — (Princeton monographs in philosophy)
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-0-691-11806-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. hegel,
georg Wilhelm Friedrich. 1770–1831. grundlinien der
Philosophie des rechts. 2. law—Philosophy.
3. natural law. 4. ethics. i. title
K230.h432h665 2010
340'.11—dc22 2009034467
British library cataloging-in-Publication Data is available
the translation of this work was supported by a grant from the goethe-
institut which is funded by the german Ministry of Foreign affairs
this book has been composed in Janson text
Printed on acid-free paper. b
press.princeton.edu
Printed in the United states of america
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
i
Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
as a Theory of Justice 1
the idea of individual Freedom:
intersubjective conditions of autonomy 7
“right” in the Philosophy of Right:
necessary spheres of self-realization 18
ii
The Connection between the Theory of Justice and the
Diagnosis of the Age 25
suffering from indeterminacy:
Pathologies of individual Freedom 28
“liberation” from suffering:
the therapeutic significance of “ethical life” 42
iii
The Theory of Ethical Life as a Normative Theory
of Modernity 48
self-realization and recognition:
conditions of “ethical life” 49
the over-institutionalization of “ethical life”:
Problems of the hegelian approach 63
Index 81
Acknowledgments
This book evolved from two lectures i gave as part of the spi-
noza lectures series in the Department of Philosophy of the
University of amsterdam in the summer semester of 1999 (axel
honneth, Suffering from Indeterminacy: An Attempt at a Reac-
tualization of Hegel’s Philosophy of right [assen, 2000]). i want
to take this opportunity to express my warm thanks to Beate
rössler, hent de Vries, andrea Kern, and Veit Michael Bader
for the great help their contributions to our colloquia proved
to be in my own work. i would further like to thank rolf-Peter
horstmann, Morton r. Moeller, and rainer Forst most sin-
cerely for their advice and critical comments after reading the
first two chapters. the english quotations from hegel are bor-
rowed from Elements of the Philosophy of Right, edited by allen W.
Wood and translated by h. B. nisbet (1991; cambridge, 2004).

The PaThologies of
individual freedom