Title: The fragmented world of the social : essays in social and political philosophy /
Authors: Honneth, Axel, 1949-; Wright, Charles W., 1961-; Honneth, Axel, 1949-
Publisher: State University of New York Press,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Critical theory; Ethics; Sociology Philosophy; Political science Philosophy; Social sciences Philosophy
Abstract: The essays in this book weave together insights and arguments from such diverse traditions as German critical theory, French philosophy and social theory, and recent Anglo-American moral and political theory, offering a unique approach to the political and theoretical consequences of the modernism/postmodernism discussion. Through an analysis of central themes in classical Marxism and early critical theory, the author shows how recent work in a variety of traditions converges on the need to question familiar distinctions between material production and culture, the public and the private, and the political and the social, and to reconsider the conceptions of agency and power that have informed them.
Contents: Author's introduction: 1. The tradition of critical theory -- Domination and moral struggle: The philosophical heritage of Marxism reviewed -- Work and instrumental action: On the normative basis of critical theory -- A fragmented world: On the implicit relevance of Lukács' early work -- Critical theory -- From Adorno to Habermas: On the transformation of critical social theory -- Foucault and Adorno: Two forms of the critique of modernity -- 2. Inquiries in the French tradition of social theory -- A structuralist Rousseau: On the anthropology of Claude Lévi-Strauss -- Embodies reason: On the rediscovery of Merleau-Ponty -- The struggle for recognition: On Sartre's Theory of intersubjectivity -- Rescuing the revolution with an ontology: On Cornelius Castoriadis' Theory of society -- The fragmented world of symbolic forms: Reflections on Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of culture -- 3. Inquiries in contemporary moral theory and social philosophy -- Moral consciousness and class domination: Some problems in the analysis of hidden morality -- Pluralization and recognition: On the self-misunderstanding of postmodern social theories -- The limits of Liberalism: On the political-ethical discussion concerning communitarianism -- Integrity and disrespect: Principles of a conception of morality based on a theory of recognition -- Decentered autonomy: The subject after the fall.