The Axel Honneth recognition fight community

Abstract

The aim of this text is to analyze the absence of a single, unequivocal definition of community in Axel Honneth’s theory. We argue that this conceptual ambiguity constitutes a deliberate methodological strategy aimed at preventing two fundamental risks: the uncritical idealization of community as a space of harmonious consensus and the generation of mechanisms of social exclusion. From our perspective, Honneth’s concept of community should be understood as a dialectical space—a realm of permanent tension—where struggles for mutual recognition operate as the driving force of progress and a prerequisite for individual self-realization. This perspective is particularly relevant when analyzing cases such as indigenous communities, where demands for cultural recognition exceed the framework of the three spheres proposed by Honneth (love, rights, and solidarity), opening the discussion on the need for a possible fourth sphere of intercultural valuation.