The Theory and Practice of Recognition

This volume presents new essays on the theory and practice of recognition. In order to retain its overall plausibility as a critical social theory, contemporary recognition theory needs to be able to successfully combine theory with real-life perspectives, in both contemporary and historical contexts.

Contemporary recognition theory has developed into an established and active multidisciplinary research programme. The chapters in this volume have two main purposes. First, they engage in theoretical development of the contemporary theories of recognition. They explore the conceptual histories and the environments of recognition, as well as the connection between recognition and authenticity, emancipation, and social ontology. Second, they connect the theoretical insights of contemporary recognition with analyses of contemporary and historical social practices. These contributions explore themes such as populism and polarization, models of harmful invisibilization and social ignorance, the problem of evil and suffering, and social justice phenomena such as the #MeToo movement.

The Theory and Practice of Recognition will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in social and political philosophy, social ontology, political theory, and sociology.

Onni Hirvonen is Senior Researcher in philosophy in the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Jyväskylä. His main interests are in Hegelian philosophies of recognition and contemporary social ontology. His recent publications in these areas include the peer-reviewed articles "Recognition and Civic Selection" (2021), "The Problem of the First Belief: Group Agents and Responsibility" (2020), and "Recognitive Arguments for Workplace Democracy" (with Keith Breen, 2020). He has edited a book on the philosophy and politics of recognition in Finnish (2020).

Heikki J. Koskinen is a PhD and a docent of theoretical philosophy. He works as a Senior Advisor at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Koskinen is the author of From a Metaphilosophical Point of View: A Study of W. V. Quine’s Naturalism (2004). He has co-edited several books including Categories of Being: Essays on Metaphysics and Logic (2012) and Recognition and Religion: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives (Routledge, 2019). Koskinen’s recent journal publications include "Antecedent Recognition: Some Problematic Educational Implications of the Very Notion" (2018), "Mediational Recognition and Metaphysical Power: A Systematic Analysis" (2020), and "Recognition, Identity, and Authenticity in the Blues" (2021).