Axel Honneth visits Oslo

Professor Axel Honneth gives a lecture at Oslo University on August 26:

"The Fabric of Justice - Limits of Proceduralism"

Abstract:
"The article tries, in a first step, to show that the intrinsic fabric of justice doesn`t consist of distributable goods, but of commonly accepted social relations which are composed of morally loaded practices; in these practices those regards can be found which define what it means to treat another person in a fair or just manner. If this starting point is convincing, then some methodological consequences concerning the concept of justice have to be drawn which are presented in the second step: Instead of constructing a normative procedure which allows us to deduce the content of justice, we have to start by reconstructing the social practices which inform us about the respects of justice. The result will be, as indicated in a third step, a pluralisation of our concept of justice which includes as many relevant principles of justice as there are commonly accepted and appreciated forms of social relations."

A German version is published in Honneth's new book "Das Ich im Wir. Studien zur Anerkennungstheorie" (Suhrkamp Verlag, 2010). A Portuguese translation is available online here (pdf).

Axel Honneth is Professor of Social Philosophy at Goethe University and Director of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main.