Justice sociale et luttes pour la reconnaissance: la question de l’agapè

Authors

  • Sébastien Roman ENS de Lyon Laboratoire Triangle UMR 5206

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2015.300

Keywords:

Paul Ricœur, Axel Honneth, Struggles for Recognition, Agape, Social Justice

Abstract

In The Course of Recognition, Paul Ricœur pays special attention to Honneth’s social theory, on the one hand, because it is devoted to the important issue of the struggles for recognition and, on the other hand, because Axel Honneth proposes a convincing neo-Hegelian conception of social justice. However, while adhering to Honneth’s project, Ricœur establishes a dialectical relationship between love and justice, in order to correct an inherent defect of Anerkennung. The reference to agápē would provide the only way out of the endless struggle, by demonstrating that human beings are capable of mutual recognition through the social practice of gift/counter-gift. Ricœur presents agápē as a simple add-on to the Honnethian project. The present paper returns to this assertion, and demonstrates that, on the contrary, the use of agápē alters the struggles for recognition, and does not help us to arrive at a conception of social justice, which is capable of revealing experiences of injustice and combatting them.

Published

2016-01-19

Issue

Section

Articles