Critical Theory and the Prospects of Radical Democracy

Abstract

In this paper I emphasize the link between Honneth’s critical theory and radical democracy as defined by C. Douglas Lummis. I, firstly, present Lummis’s portrayal of radical democracy, emphasizing the original meaning of the notion of democracy as essentially radical in contrast to muddled conceptions of democracy. I, then, briefly present a characterization of radical democracy as a philosophical and normative principle. I emphasize, following Lummis, that what is radical in democracy is common sense language that collectively binds people. I relate this to Hegel’s idea of Sittlichkeit. Gesturing towards the idea that democracy is a kind of participative discourse, I propose that Honneth’s theory of social freedom is a third possibility between Habermas’s deliberative discourse and Mouffe’s agonistic discourse. I, then, rehearse the three normative claims of Horkheimer to contextualize Honneth’s commitment to critical theory, allowing me to present a schematic account of his theory of social freedom which is ironically Hegelian inspired, but decidedly critical of Hegel’s characterization of democracy. I conclude by relating Benjamin’s image of “the tradition of the oppressed” with the notion of social freedom.