The Idea of Socialism by Axel Honneth (original) (raw)

The interaction between American pragmatism and German critical theory has a long history. While Horkheimer and Adorno, the founding fathers of critical theory, were quite critical of the native American philosophy they encountered when they fled from Nazi Germany, American pragmatism has had a considerable influence on both Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth-the two most prominent thinkers within critical theory's 2nd and 3rd generations. As is well known, however, their prime inspiration has been George Herbert Mead's symbolic interactionist sociology as well as Peirce's theory of signs, while James' and Dewey's thinking has played a minor role for them. However, in Axel Honneth's most recent book, The idea of Socialism: Towards a Renewal, this situation has changed: here, it is Dewey's thinking on politics, and especially his The Public and its Problems, which serves as the main inspiration. As the title indicates, the main purpose of Honneth's short (145 pages) book is to renew the socialist idea, stressing its relevance for the contemporary world. As Honneth presents it, this project is motivated by the fact that even though we have witnessed the worst financial crisis since the 1930s and many people are outraged by the rising levels of inequality, socialist ideas seem to have lost their "utopian energy" and ability to inspire people to believe in a world beyond capitalism. The main question that Honneth wants to answer in his book is why this is so. Why have socialist ideas lost their "utopian energy" or "virulence"? And how can they be reconstructed in such a way that they, once again, will be able to make people "imagine a society beyond capitalism"? In the book's first part, the short 'Introduction', Honneth lays the groundwork for his own analysis by reviewing and dismissing three 'popular' explanations of why the socialist idea has lost its power