The necessity for recognition and its political-theoretical conception

An analysis of recognition theory based on Taylor, Honneth

Abstract

The need to obtain recognition from others is eternal for people in social relationships. The highly developed economy and material culture of modern society have brought about the hidden worries of modernity, where material abundance contrasts sharply with spiritual deprivation, and the lack of a sense of significance and a sense of belonging brings spiritual pain to modern people. As a result, the root causes of social conflicts have gradually turned to social values and cultural contradictions. Today, with the increasing trend of cultural pluralism, the importance of recognition is constantly highlighted. Recognition partly constitutes identity, and when a person does not receive recognition from others or only receives distorted recognition, his or her own identity will be in trouble. The acquisition of recognition, whether through dialogue or struggle, is a process of self-realization. The acquisition of recognition is important because it means more than anything else the acquisition of equal rights, respect, security and freedom, and the establishment of a further sense of self. So how to obtain recognition, modern political theorists Taylor and Honneth, on the basis of absorbing the essence of theories of their predecessors, combined with the needs of real politics to put forward their own unique political concepts, in the "politics of recognition" and "the struggle for recognition" the two thinkers were respectively in "the politics of recognition" and "the struggle for recognition", the two thinkers explained the necessity of recognition and different ways to obtain recognition. By analyzing the theories of recognition of these two thinkers, we can gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of cultural conflicts and the politics of recognition.