FREEDOM AND/OR JUSTICE Cover Image
  • Price 5.50 €

FREIHEIT UND/ODER GERECHTIGKEIT
FREEDOM AND/OR JUSTICE

Author(s): Christo Petkov Todorov
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Фондация за хуманитарни и социални изследвания - София
Keywords: recognition; justice; individual freedom; government and freedom; social theory; social interaction; Axel Honneth

Summary/Abstract: Christo Todorov’s commentary to the central paper of Axel Honneth proceeds from the assumption that in modern societies the legitimate addressee of any claims for just recognition and redistribution is indispensably the state – it is precisely the agency that guaranties but also limits individual liberties in the form of “rights.” However, a conception of justice extended in such a way as to embrace concern and care for the emotional self-realization of individuals as well as just assessment of their unique achievement in the labour sphere runs the risk of overburdening the state with responsibilities that it cannot shoulder. At the same time, inasmuch as it entrusts the state with the duty to take care of individual self-realization, the communicative concept of liberty and justice tends to release individuals from responsibility for their own actions. Instead, Todorov emphasizes a twofold concept of justice: as a formal-legal and political regulation that frames social interactions, and as securing negative individual freedom. These two dimensions should not be merged. Rather they should be comprehended and sustained in a practical mutual tension.

  • Issue Year: 2006
  • Issue No: 22
  • Page Range: 35-41
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: German