Suffering from Exclusion: on the critical impulse of the theory of recognition

Abstract

The text notes the continued presence of negative experiences as poverty, reification, damaged lives, the non-identical and disrespect at the heart of critical theory as original forms of emancipatory interest, and raises the question, whether they are an inevitable correlate of social life. If they were so, overcome them would mean break the social ties. The author’s argument in the text is that Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition, on the contrary, not only connects closely personal experiences with social relations, the individual self-realization with the strengthening of social ties, but also interprets negative experiences as a lack of social inclusion and exposes how feelings of injustice can become impetus to the revitalization of social inclusion.