The 'living entity': Reification and forgetting. (November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Morgan, Alastair
• Is Part Of: European journal of social theory. Volume 17:Number 4(2014:Nov.)
• Page Start: 377
• Page End: 388
• Publication Date: 2014-11
• Subjects: forgetting -- life -- pre-reflective experience -- reification -- second nature; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 301.01
• DOI: 10.1177/1368431014536092
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1368-4310

Abstract

In his attempt at a renewal of the concept of reification, Axel Honneth has referred to reification as a kind of forgetting. He uses an epigraph from Adorno and Horkheimer's work to introduce this theme. This article considers the different accounts that are given by Honneth, on the one hand, and Adorno and Horkheimer, on the other, as to the way that reification is a forgetting of core experiential capacities of intersubjective human relations. It argues that Honneth's account relies too much on a foundational and undifferentiated notion of 'empathetic engagement', and that in order to articulate the damage done by reification, we need to contend with the more radical notion of forgetting that is outlined in Adorno and Horkheimer's work.