Friendship, Recognition and Social Freedom: A Sociological Reconstruction. Issue 3 (3rd July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Blatterer, Harry
• Is Part Of: Critical horizons. Volume 19:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 198
• Page End: 214
• Publication Date: 2018-07-03
• Subjects: Friendship -- Honneth -- institution -- intimacy -- recognition -- social freedom; Critical theory -- Periodicals; 142.05
• DOI: 10.1080/14409917.2018.1485247
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1440-9917

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In Freedom's Right, Axel Honneth articulates the social freedom of friendship with reference to its institutionalised norms. These action norms, however, are not specific to friendship; they apply to modern intimacy per se. Such non-specificity cannot adequately account for the experience of social freedom in friendship. Addressing this issue, I evaluate friendship as a form of recognition and identify a generative recognition deficit functional to its relational autonomy. Then, taking Honneth's institutional approach to friendship as a point of departure, I ascertain an institutional deficit that both sustains friendship's autonomy and constrains the generalisability of its social freedom by way of institutional connectivity to heterosexuality. I suggest that only a differentiating approach to friendship that fathoms its extraordinary position among interpersonal relationships can yield new insights. That done, friendship can in turn provide a prism through which to assess the conceptual approaches deployed in its analysis.