Contributions by Axel Honneth to the debate on theories of justice in the contemporary world

Abstract

This paper intends to make an analysis about the contributions of Axel Honneth regarding his contributions to the debate on theories of justice in the current context. In this sense, the attempt to achieve normative principles based on horizontality, that is, on social reality itself, can be mentioned as the main one. In order to achieve success in this reflexive-philosophical endeavor, it is based on his work The Right of Freedom, in which one has the question related to freedom, being this taken as the principle of greater value in the contemporaneity. Hence, freedom directed to the social aspect is specifically expressed in institutions, as well as its bond being intrinsically linked to social, market relations and also to the political universe. In assuming that there is a gap between the normative principles pertaining to justice and social reality, as the author considers, it is encouraged, from this study, to note the potentialities, as well as the limits of this normative reconstruction, according to the theoretical proposition of Honneth.