From Struggle to Gift
Ricoeur on Recognition
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/errs.2025.692Keywords:
struggle for recognition, lord-bondsman dialectic, gift, Ricœur, Honneth, HegelAbstract
By analyzing recognition in terms of the gift, Ricœur calls into question the concept of the struggle for recognition. For the gift does not seem to be the kind of thing that can be struggled for. But why should recognition be conceived in terms of the gift in the first place? I argue that Ricœur’s analysis of recognition in terms of the gift can be developed from the tensions in the concept of the struggle for recognition as seen in Hegel’s lord-bondsman dialectic. This dialectic leads to the conclusion that the other must be allowed to go free in order for their recognition to be of value to the person receiving it. Ricœur’s analysis of recognition in terms of the gift radicalizes this concern for the other’s freedom by conceiving of recognition as something that we receive without even asking for it – namely, as a gift.
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