Recognition is fundamental to the law; it is also a fundamental human need. When denied recognition, human beings struggle, even risk their own lives, to achieve it. But what is recognition and why is it so highly valued? How has it been theorised and operationalised? What are the micro- and macro-practices of recognition and misrecognition? How can a better understanding of recognition inform strategies of advocacy, activism or law reform?
This International Summer School module offers an advanced introduction to the theory of recognition in philosophy and in law. To be recognised can give us self-respect and self-esteem, and without it we will struggle to make our voice heard or make sense of our lives. What are the origins of the concept of recognition? How does it work? What does it mean to be mis-recognised? And how can we use the concept of recognition to understand social and political problems?
We will consider the historical and theoretical foundations of recognition in modern European philosophy (from Westphalia and Rousseau to Hegel and Honneth) and apply it to some of the most pressing legal problems and social challenges of our time.
Week one: Historical and theoretical foundations
- Westphalian recognition
- “Don’t tread on me” – Fichte and the summons
- The master-slave dialectic – Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
- The struggle for recognition – Honneth on the modern recognition order
- Competition for social esteem
Week two: Legal applications
- Equal recognition before the law
- Language, ethnicity and the struggle for cultural recognition
- Furiosi voluntas nulla est: disability and interdiction
- Misrecognition: the case of sexual objectification
- Student presentations
Teaching team
Timo Jütten is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex and a member of the Essex Human Rights Centre. His principal research interests are in Critical Theory, and he directs the Competition and Competitiveness Project, which examines the role that competition plays in social life.
Wayne Martin is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex and a member of the Essex Human Rights Centre. His historical research interests include Rousseau and German Idealism. He directs the Essex Autonomy Project and is actively involved in reform initiatives designed to achieve more inclusive regimes of legal recognition for persons living with disabilities.
*Please note that the the delivery of this module is dependent on a minimum of 10 students.