Sharing the universal resources: Remarks on Honneth’s understanding of work

Abstract

Work is topic often neglected by contemporary philosophy. In academic political philosophy, this is due, among other things, to the dominance of analytic political liberalism and its bracketing of substantive questions regarding the “good” life. Surprisingly, however, even in critical theory there have been few exceptions to the general shunning of the question of work. That Axel Honneth, in his 2021 Benjamin Lectures, has now brought the subject out of the black box is an invaluable asset of his project. Nevertheless, I would like to ask two critical questions and make a suggestion. The first part of my inquiry concerns the side of the materiality of labor and expresses doubts whether the material basis Honneth seeks to recover is sufficiently material. The second part of my inquiry concerns the normative character of his understanding of work (i.e., the question of good work and the pathologies of labor) and suggests a Hegelian understanding of work, that is, work as participating in the universal resources of society. I argue that such an understanding would provide us with a much-needed sufficient basis for an encompassing but non-essentialist critique of the pathologies of labor.