Abstract

MARTIN, Facundo Nahuel. Honneth y Postone: dos teorías críticas de la modernidad. Rev. Pilquen. secc. cienc. soc. [online]. 2016, vol.19, n.4, pp.47-58. ISSN 1851-3123.

The aim of this paper is to compare Axel Honneth and Moishe Postone´s different critical theories of modern society. According to Honneth, modern normative structures, grounded on egalitarian right and the person´s freedom, lay the basic foundations from which present social struggles can be dealt with. Struggle for recognition propels the moral development of modern society, but it does not lead to any significant qualitative change in the basic determinations of modern ethical life. Postone, on the contrary, aims towards a radical and global transformation in the social dynamics of modernity, wich basic structures are reified and thus constrain the possibilities for action of subjects. The automatic movement of those reified structures, yet, creates potentials for their immanent overcoming. Both Honneth and Postone construct different critical concepts of modernity, understood as an ambiguous epoch, responsible for forms of domination but also containing liberating possibilities. The first one offers an immanent critique that looks forward to the moral development of modernity. The second one formulates an immanent critique, but in terms of radical break rather than progress within a given framework.

Keywords : Honneth; Postone; Critical theory; Modernity.

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