Is there an emancipatory interest? An attempt to answer critical theory's most fundamental question

Abstract

In the text above, Axel Honneth investigates if, in accordance to the postulates of Critical Theory’s, there is an epistemological emancipatory interest. To answer the question, the author revisits the idea of a critical theory from its beginning among Left Hegelians through to Jürgen Habermas’ epistemological theory in Knowledge and interest. After that, Honneth explores four alternatives that could provide an answer to the investigations, namely: The tradition of Rousseau and Kant; Freud’s Psychoanalysis; Marx’s political theory; and the theory of social conflict inspired by Hegel and Dewey). In the last part of the essay, Honneth defends the idea that the emancipatory epistemological interest is connected to the critical interpretation of already existing norms by socially dominated groups and to their attempt to unmask its application upon the social reality as insufficiently fair.