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Affirmative Action, Recognition, Self-Respect: Axel Honneth and the Phenomenological Deficit of Critical Theory

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Affirmative Action, Recognition, Self-Respect: Axel Honneth and the Phenomenological Deficit of Critical Theory
Affirmative action, recognition, self-respect
Axel Honneth and the phenomenological deficit of critical theory
Axel Honneth e o déficit fenomenológico da teoria crítica

Ação afirmativa, reconhecimento, autorrespeito
Nythamar de Oliveira*

Abstract: While liberal, redistributive views seek to correct and compensate for past injustices, by resorting to compensatory, procedural arguments for corrective justice, the recognition-based, communitarian arguments tend to promote by means of social movements and struggles for recognition a society free from prejudice and disrespect. In developing democratic societies such as Brazil, Axel Honneth’s contribution to the ongoing debates on Affirmative Action has been evoked, confirming that the dialectics of recognition does not merely seek a theoretical solution to the structural and economic inequalities that constitute some of their worst social pathologies, but allows for practices of self-respect and subjectivation that defy all technologies of social control, as pointed out in Foucault’s critique of power. The phenomenological deficit of critical theory consists thus in recasting the critique of power with a view to unveiling lifeworldly practices that resist systemic domination.
Keywords: Affirmative action; Critical theory; Lifeworld; Recognition; Self-respect; Social technologies

Resumo: Enquanto concepções liberais redistributivas buscam corrigir e compensar as injustiças do passado, recorrendo a argumentos procedimentais reparativos em favor da justiça corretiva, os argumentos comunitaristas embasados no reconhecimento tendem a promover por meio de movimentos e lutas sociais pelo reconhecimento uma sociedade livre de preconceitos e desrespeito. Em sociedades democráticas em desenvolvimento, como o Brasil, a contribuição de Axel Honneth para os debates em curso sobre a Ação Afirmativa tem sido evocada, confirmando que a dialética do reconhecimento não se limita a procurar uma solução teórica para as



References: BERNSTEIN, Richard J. Habermas and modernity. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985. COHEN, Marshall; NAGEL, Thomas; SCANLON, Thomas (Eds.). Equality and preferential treatment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977. COSTA , Sérgio. Dois atlânticos: teoria social, anti-racismo, cosmopolitismo. Belo Horizonte: Edufmg, 2006. _____ . A construção sociológica da raça no Brasil. Estudos Afro-Asiáticos, Rio de Janeiro, v. 24, p. 35-61, 2002. FOUCAULT, Michel. Governmentality. In: BURCHELL, Graham; GORDON, Colin; MILLER, Peter Miller (Eds.). The Foucault Effect: Studies in governmentality. Harvester Wheatsheaf. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. _____. About the beginning of the hermeneutics of the self, edited by Mark Blasius, Political Theory, Evanston, v. 21, n. 2, p. 198-227, May 1993. _____. The birth of biopolitics. In: RABINOW, Paul (Ed.). Michel Foucault, Ethics: Subjectivity and truth. New York: The New Press, 1997. _____. L’herméneutique du sujet. Paris: Seuil, Gallimard, 2001. FRASER, Nancy; HONNETH, Axel. Redistribution or recognition? A politicalphilosophical exchange. London: Verso, 2003. FRASER, Nancy. Scales of justice: Reimagining political space in a globalizing world. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008. FREYRE, Gilberto. Casa-grande e senzala. Rio de Janeiro: Global Editora, 2006 (1933). HABERMAS, Jürgen. The theory of communicative action I: Reason and the rationalization of society. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984. _____. The theory of communicative action II: Lifeworld and system. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989. N. Oliveira – Affirmative action, recognition, self-respect 385 _____. The philosophical discourse of modernity. Boston: MIT Press, 1997. _____. Between facts and norms. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998. _____. Toward a rational society. Boston: Beacon Press, 1970. HONNETH, Axel. The critique of power: Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Theory. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991. _____. The struggle for recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflict. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996. MENDONÇA, Ricardo. Reconhecimento em debate: os modelos de Honneth e Fraser em sua relação com o legado habermasiano. Revista de Sociologia e Política, Curitiba, v. 29, p. 169-185, 2007. MOSLEY, Albert. Affirmative action: Pro. In: MOSLEY, Albert; CAPALDI, Nicholas (Eds.). Affirmative action: Social justice or unfair preference? London: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997. NEVES, Paulo. Luta anti-racista. Rbcs, São Paulo, v. 20, n. 59, p. 81-96, 2005. PINTO, Celi. Nota sobre a controvérsia Fraser-Honneth informada pelo cenário brasileiro. Lua Nova, São Paulo, n. 74, p. 35-58, 2008. POJMAN, Louis. The case against strong affirmative action. In: SHAW, William (Ed.). Personal and social morality (Ethics). 4th ed. Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1998. RAWLS, John. A theory of justice. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999 (1971). SANTOS, Hermilio. Interpretations of everyday life approximations to the analysis of lifeworld. Civitas, Porto Alegre, v. 9, n. 1, p. 103-117, 2009. SARTRE, Jean-Paul. Le colonialisme est un système. Les temps modernes, v. 126. 1956. SHAW, William (Ed.). Personal and social morality (Ethics). 4. ed. Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1998. THOMSON, Judith Jarvis. Preferential Hiring. In: COHEN, Marshall; NAGEL, Thomas; SCANLON, Thomas (Eds.). Equality and preferential treatment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977. TWINE, France Winddance. Racism in a racial democracy: The maintenance of white supremacy in Brazil. Piscataway: Rutgers University Press, 1997. Recebido em: 22/09/2009 Aprovado em: 15/10/2009

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