Reification: A New Look at an Old Idea

Axel Honneth

ISBN 10: 0199898057 / ISBN 13: 9780199898053

Published by Oxford University Press Inc, 2012

About this Item

2012. 1st Edition. Paperback. In these original and imaginative essays, delivered as the Tanner Lectures at the University of California, Berkeley in 2005, the philosopher Axel Honneth attempts to rescue the concept of reification by recasting it in terms of the philosophy of recognition he has been developing over the past two decades. Editor(s): Jay, Martin. Series: The Berkeley Tanner Lectures. Num Pages: 182 pages, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: HPM; HPS; JPFC. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 206 x 149 x 11. Weight in Grams: 238. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9780199898053

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Reification: A New Look at an Old Idea
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199898057
• ISBN 13: 9780199898053
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In the early 20th century, Marxist theory was enriched and rejuvenated by adopting the concept of reification, introduced by the Hungarian theorist Georg Lukács to identify and denounce the transformation of historical processes into ahistorical entities, human actions into things that seemed part of an immutable "second nature." For a variety of reasons, both theoretical and practical, the hopes placed in de-reification as a tool of revolutionary emancipation proved vain. In these original and imaginative essays, delivered as the Tanner Lectures at the University of California, Berkeley in 2005, the distinguished third-generation Frankfurt School philosopher Axel Honneth attempts to rescue the concept of reification by recasting it in terms of the philosophy of recognition he has been developing over the past two decades. Three distinguished political and social theorists: Judith Butler, Raymond Geuss, and Jonathan Lear, respond with hard questions about the central anthropological premise of his argument, the assumption that prior to cognition there is a fundamental experience of intersubjective recognition that can provide a normative standard by which current social relations can be judged wanted. Honneth listens carefully to their criticism and provides a powerful defense of his position.

About the Author

Axel Honneth is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institut für Sozialforschung, University of Frankfurt, Germany