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2 - From Rousseau to Sartre

Recognition and Loss of Self

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2020

Axel Honneth
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Summary

This chapter shows that in French culture, starting with La Rochefoucauld and powerfully carried forward by Rousseau, the reliance upon the opinion of others (“recognition”) was considered to be a fundamental threat to a sort of virtuous self-reliance on individual conscience. The chapter seeks to demonstrate that this “negative” meaning of recognition is still present in subsequent figures, including twentieth-century authors such as Sartre. On the key issue of whether recognition is primarily a threat to authority or an opportunity for mutual affirmation, it is often insufficiently appreciated that Sartre was closer to Rousseau than to Hegel. The chapter also attempts to identify some sociopolitical reasons that may explain why such a negative understanding might have been dominant in French culture.

Type
Chapter
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Recognition
A Chapter in the History of European Ideas
, pp. 10 - 53
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • From Rousseau to Sartre
  • Axel Honneth, Columbia University, New York
  • Book: Recognition
  • Online publication: 09 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108872775.002
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  • From Rousseau to Sartre
  • Axel Honneth, Columbia University, New York
  • Book: Recognition
  • Online publication: 09 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108872775.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • From Rousseau to Sartre
  • Axel Honneth, Columbia University, New York
  • Book: Recognition
  • Online publication: 09 October 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108872775.002
Available formats
×