AXEL HONNETH. THE IDEA OF SOCIALISM. TOWARDS A RENEWAL

Abstract. The review of the book by the noted German philosopher and sociologist Axel Honneth discusses key points and aspects of the renewed idea of socialism. Honneth develops this idea by critically examining, on the one hand, previous socialist theories and, on the other hand, the historical experience of transforming society on the principles of freedom, equality, fraternity.

Keywords: socialism, democracy, freedom, communication.

Honneth's leitmotif is "socialism and freedom." By permeating the idea of ​​freedom throughout his narrative, Honneth makes it the central problem of building socialism.

The equality of rights brought by the revolution was welcomed by both liberals and socialists. But, seeing the inability of the established bourgeois order to "reconcile" freedom and fraternity, socialists of all persuasions sought to transcend the egoistic understanding of freedom and establish genuine freedom, where people would complement each other in their individual activity.

Honneth champions the idea of ​​uniting fraternity and freedom. He considers the bearer of freedom not the individual, but society. While favorably disposed toward the idea of ​​uniting freedom and "community," he notes that the subsequent arguments of the early socialists are less well-reasoned and have numerous flaws. Honneth is particularly distressed by the fact that Marx, with his economic determinism, emerged victorious in the theoretical struggle. This is explained by the circumstances of the time, namely, the widespread industrialization of early capitalism. Honneth also makes an interesting observation: determination as the central category of early socialism precludes experimental understanding of the modifiability of the capitalist system, even excluding the possibility that market mechanisms could interact positively with the socialist idea.

Drawing on the revisionist tradition of Western Marxism, Honneth criticizes the most well-known tenets of socialism: the complete rejection and replacement of the market economy, the role of the proletariat, and the economic determinism of history. Honneth considers the primary error of the early socialists to be their prioritization of the economic aspect of society. This is the source of the aforementioned errors of early socialism. Seeking to explain everything and everyone in social life through economic causes, the early socialists dismiss and annul all the positive achievements and social freedoms that the bourgeois economic system brought about after the French Revolution. The second error of early socialism is that it posits reliance on a specific class, namely, the revolutionary proletariat. Indeed, in the 19th century, the proletariat was a numerous class and, at the same time, extremely vulnerable to the forces of the market. But already in the early 1920s, with the beginning of a revision of socialism, Honneth's predecessors in the Frankfurt School "confronted the sociological fiction of a revolutionary working class with empirically substantiated doubts"; further interdisciplinary research led to the understanding that "there is no automaticity in translating class-specific life circumstances into specific desires" (p. 68). After World War II, with the changing situation in the labor market and the growth of so-called "white-collar workers," it became definitively clear that the idea of ​​class affiliation in socialism was untenable. The third fallacy, the economic determination of the demise of capitalism and the advent of socialism, is viewed by Honneth as an obstacle to social experiments and experiences that could unlock the potential for social change in changing conditions. He is unsatisfied with the rigid alternative: if not the market, then the plan.

Time will tell whether Honneth has succeeded in reviving the idea of ​​socialism. At the very least, he has made an honest theoretical contribution to this endeavor. Honneth does not propose specific measures for reorganizing society. Nevertheless, the historical insights and approaches to understanding historical experience he offers allow us to understand the world we currently live in and adequately relate the ideas of past thinkers to the contemporary historical situation.