Paper/Proposal Title
Dissymmetry. Equality, and Mutual Recognition: Ricoeur’s Hegelian Interrogation of the Liberal Conception of Human Rights
Location
River Campus - Room M2080
Start Date
10-4-2013 3:15 PM
Abstract
Charles Taylor and Axel Honneth are among the most prominent figures who have broadened human rights discourse to include the Hegelian theme of recognition. Paul Ricoeur’s The Course of Recognition (2005; dedicated to Taylor who examined “third-wave” human rights demands against this Hegelian background) mines Honneth’s The Struggle for Recognition for new analytical resources for considering whether all questions of social justice, domination, and oppression are best addressed in the juridical language of legal rights. On the one hand, at the theoretical level, Ricoeur deploys the human need for recognition as a ground and warrant for social, economic, and subaltern claims upon the state. On the other hand, he expands the conversation about domination and oppression beyond juridical boundaries, suggesting that legal categories may not best address problems that arise within the variable value/identity horizons that the heirs of Hegel capture under the notion of Sittlichkeit. Critical legal scholar Costas Douzinas has highlighted the limitations of the liberal/legal human rights approach by exploring the “paradoxical dialectic” between classical liberalism’s investment in the (abstract) equality of all individuals before the law and the postmodern appreciation of concrete difference. Ricoeur, who is similarly concerned about the “bad infinite” of proliferating rights claims, tangled laws, and endless conflict, develops the theme of recognition to sketch an alternative action program in the face of economic exploitation, the denial of meaningful participation, and the treatment of persons as culturally disposable. Ricoeur’s discussion of compromise, symbolic mediation, and unreciprocated gifts constitute a practical program worth exploring.
Dissymmetry. Equality, and Mutual Recognition: Ricoeur’s Hegelian Interrogation of the Liberal Conception of Human Rights
River Campus - Room M2080
Charles Taylor and Axel Honneth are among the most prominent figures who have broadened human rights discourse to include the Hegelian theme of recognition. Paul Ricoeur’s The Course of Recognition (2005; dedicated to Taylor who examined “third-wave” human rights demands against this Hegelian background) mines Honneth’s The Struggle for Recognition for new analytical resources for considering whether all questions of social justice, domination, and oppression are best addressed in the juridical language of legal rights. On the one hand, at the theoretical level, Ricoeur deploys the human need for recognition as a ground and warrant for social, economic, and subaltern claims upon the state. On the other hand, he expands the conversation about domination and oppression beyond juridical boundaries, suggesting that legal categories may not best address problems that arise within the variable value/identity horizons that the heirs of Hegel capture under the notion of Sittlichkeit. Critical legal scholar Costas Douzinas has highlighted the limitations of the liberal/legal human rights approach by exploring the “paradoxical dialectic” between classical liberalism’s investment in the (abstract) equality of all individuals before the law and the postmodern appreciation of concrete difference. Ricoeur, who is similarly concerned about the “bad infinite” of proliferating rights claims, tangled laws, and endless conflict, develops the theme of recognition to sketch an alternative action program in the face of economic exploitation, the denial of meaningful participation, and the treatment of persons as culturally disposable. Ricoeur’s discussion of compromise, symbolic mediation, and unreciprocated gifts constitute a practical program worth exploring.
Comments
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