On Honneth’s Idea Of Socialism

At present,in western developed capitalist countries,people are increasingly dissatisfied with various crises caused by capitalism,but they lack the will and ability to transcend the real society.In order to reasonably analyze the reasons for the decline of traditional socialist theory and its practice,and to arouse people’s utopian will to change society,Axel Honneth,the third-generation thought leader of Frankfurt School in Germany,put forward his "socialist idea" on the basis of his recognition theory and democratic and free thought,which not only promoted the evolution and development of contemporary socialist theory theoretically,but also promoted the development of modern socialist theory.At the realistic level to save the socialist practice in the low tide to provide new ideas.On the basis of rethinking and updating the past and current socialist theory and practice,Honneth reinterprets Marx’s labor liberation theory and Hegel’s philosophy of law,and reconstructs his "socialist idea" from the perspective of norms.By referring to Dewey’s cooperative democratic thought and Habermas’ s consultative political theory,he emphasized the potential of democratic consultation and public sphere’s social liberation and its positive significance to the construction of democratic life.The above thought resources made him reflect on the revolutionary theory of traditional socialism theory and expand the core field of traditional socialism from economy to society.Expanding the revolutionary subject and interest appeal to the oppressed groups and their equality appeal;We will extend the impetus of revolution to the institutional field.On this basis,he further regards "socialism" as an ideal society concept with "social freedom" as its core value and "holistic individualism" as its basic principle.At the same time,on the basis of emphasizing the role of the ethical mechanism of recognition in guaranteeing social construction,he discusses the relationship between individual freedom and social solidarity,and demonstrates the possibility of it.In the realistic conception,different from the traditional socialist theory which regards planned economy as the only economic system of socialist society,Honneth proposed to re-examine the market economy system and its value through the method of "historical experimentalism",and promote the democratic life form and the development of socialist globalization with the help of the liberated potential of the public sphere.Such a "socialist idea" with internal criticism as the theoretical purport and democratic ethics as the normative pursuit,although due to the deviation in the interpretation of historical materialism,the exploration of liberation path lacks practical material basis,and eventually deviates from the scientific socialist theory.However,this theory still deepens Honneth’s democratic ethical thought,and strengthens the normative basis of Marxist political economy theory to a certain extent,and emphasizes the importance of freedom and democratic value to socialism.