Only Yours

In this stimulating debate Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth set out to advance the discussion in political philosophy about the idea of recognition, especially as it relates to that of redistribution. Some theorists, such as Axel Honneth, have reframed the original socialist ideal of redistribution in terms of the figure of a struggle for recognition that has inspired important currents of the feminist and gay and lesbian movements, as well as conflicts over multiculturalism. Others, like Nancy Fraser, ask whether the current theoretical and practical emphasis on cultural recognition is displacing, rather than complicating and enriching, our understanding of the centrality of redistribution to social justice. This line of inquiry raises a series of philosophical, social and political problems that lie at the heart of the two authors' projects and that their contributions seek to address.