Reification and recognition in political theory in Axel Honneth

In order to implement a critical analysis of intersubjectivity and its relationship with social pathologies, contemporary author Axel Honneth (1949-) proposes to discuss the concept of reification in his political theory. To this end, an author from the Frankfurt school focuses on the theory of another important philosopher from the 20th century Marxist tradition: Georg Lucaks. This is due to the incorporation of the term reification in an attempt to put Marxist theory back at the center of critical theory discussions. However, for the current understanding of the use of the concept, it became necessary to release its purely economic original reference. It is in this direction of trying to free reification from "possible shackles" of the economic sphere that Axel Honneth intends to update this category. In addition to resuming the main aspects of the concept of reification, according to the analysis of "commodity fetishism", this article intends to present Honneth's interpretation of reifying social processes. At first, the subjects' relationships with the surrounding world will be analyzed. In the second moment, the analysis will focus on the social relations between the subjects and on the pathological effects of self-reification on ethical self-fulfillment. Finally, the third moment intends to discuss the psychosocial consequences of this successive production of new social pathologies resulting from reification as "forgetting recognition".