Table of Contents

Introduction, by Heikki Ikäheimo, Kristina Lepold, and Titus Stahl
1. Recognition Between Power and Normativity: A Hegelian Critique of Judith Butler, by Axel Honneth
2. Recognition and the Social Bond: A Response to Axel Honneth, by Judith Butler
3. Intelligibility and Authority in Recognition: A Reply, by Axel Honneth
4. Recognition and Mediation: A Second Reply to Axel Honneth, by Judith Butler
5. Historicizing Recognition: From Ontology to Teleology, by Lois McNay
6. Recognizing Ambivalence: Honneth, Butler, and Philosophical Anthropology, by Amy Allen
7. How Should We Understand the Ambivalence of Recognition? Revisiting the Link Between Recognition and Subjection in the Works of Althusser and Butler, by Kristina Lepold
8. Recognition, Constitutive Domination, and Emancipation, by Titus Stahl
9. Return to Reification: An Attempt at Systematization, by Heikki Ikäheimo
10. Negativity in Recognition: Post-Freudian Legacies in Contemporary Critical Theory, by Jean-Philippe Deranty
11. Beyond Needs: Recognition, Conflict, and the Limits of Institutionalization, by Robin Celikates
12. Freedom, Equality, and Struggles of Recognition: Tully, Rancière, and the Agonistic Re-Orientation, by David Owen
Contributors
Index

About the Author

Heikki Ikäheimo is senior lecturer in philosophy at UNSW Sydney.

Kristina Lepold is junior professor of social philosophy and critical theory at Humboldt University Berlin.

Titus Stahl is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Groningen.

Reviews

This fascinating encounter between Judith Butler and Axel Honneth—accompanied by a terrific collection of critical essays—advances the theoretical conversation about the political valence of recognition, casts a clarifying eye on its past, and shows how much patient labor is required to achieve understanding across differences in philosophical approach and political perspective. Indispensable!
*Patchen Markell, Cornell University*

This book brings together a diverse array of scintillating essays from some of the most important proponents and critics of recognition theory today. One pervasive theme is the ambiguity of recognition—its dangers as well as its indispensability to human life. In this respect Recognition and Ambivalence implicitly makes Rousseau rather than Hegel into the true founder of recognition theory, while at the same time developing it in ways that illuminate such contemporary phenomena as racism, gender inequality, postcolonial domination, reification, and emancipatory social movements.
*Frederick Neuhouser, author of Rousseau's Critique of Inequality: Reconstructing the Second Discourse*

Recognition and Ambivalence explores key issues regarding the merits and problems of considering the concept of recognition as a primary driver of critical social theory. By encouraging the contributors to think through the potential ambivalences, and negative impact, of such a focus, the editors have provided a uniquely valuable volume that facilitates a nuanced and qualified defense of critical recognition theory by taking us beyond the current debates that have engaged supporters and detractors.
*Shane O'Neill, coauthor of Recognition Theory as Social Research: Investigating the Dynamics of Social Conflict*