FREEDOM AND INSTITUTION: THEORY OF JUSTICE AS HEGELIAN "SITTLICHKEITSLEHRE" IN A. HONNETH'S DAS RECHT DER FREIHEIT

The normative reconstruction of our modern society that A. Honneth adopts as a method for the theory of justice in his Das Recht der Freiheit (2011) follows on from his interpretation of Hegelʼs Philosophy of Right in his earlier book Das Leiden an Unbestimmtheit (2001). In this paper, it is argued that Honnethʼs theoretical development here is the necessary result of his theory of recognition, but that it also implies some theoretical problems. These are as follows: (1) the circularity problem; (2) the gerrymandering problem; and (3) the implicit shift of the grounds of normativity. The last problem in particular implies an important theoretical turn from his formal position that could upset his program of the revision of Critical Theory through the theory of recognition.