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180A Critical Theory of Social SufferingCritical Horizons 11 (2): 221-241. 2010.This paper begins by defending the twofold relevance, political and theoretical, of the notion of social suffering. Social suffering is a notion politics cannot do without today, as it seems indispensable to describe all the aspects of contemporary injustice. As such, it has been taken up in a number of significant research programmes in different social sciences (sociology, anthropology, social psychology). The notion however poses significant conceptual problems as it challenges disciplinary b…Read more
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142Politicizing Honneth’s Ethics of RecognitionThesis Eleven 88 (1): 92-111. 2007.This article argues that Axel Honneth’s ethics of recognition offers a robust model for a renewed critical theory of society, provided that it does not shy away from its political dimensions. First, the ethics of recognition needs to clarify its political moment at the conceptual level to remain conceptually sustainable. This requires a clarification of the notion of identity in relation to the three spheres of recognition, and a clarification of its exact place in a politics of recognition. We …Read more
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79From fordism to post-fordism: Beyond or back to alienation?Critical Horizons 8 (2): 205-220. 2007.The evidence today is practically uncontested: about thirty years ago we left Fordism behind and entered a new phase of capitalism. That the structures of the post-Fordist social order call for new modes of social critique is also a prevalent idea. The category of alienation continues, however, to be discredited. Nevertheless it is not clear that the categories of democracy (as apparatuses of non-domination), justice and the good life are capable of bringing about the political effects that may …Read more
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63Three Marxian Approaches to RecognitionEthical Theory and Moral Practice 16 (4): 699-711. 2013.If it seems fully legitimate to introduce Marx in the contemporary discussion about recognition, it is more disputable to attribute to Marx an unified conception of recognition. There is no doubt that Marx hasn’t provided any systematic account of recognition, but he has tackled the issue of recognition from various points of view. Could these various points of view be unified in a general conception of recognition? This article claims that this is not the case since three accounts of recognitio…Read more
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61Radical democracy and an abolitionist concept of justice. A critique of Habermas' theory of justiceCritical Horizons 6 (1): 137-152. 2005.This paper asks whether or not normative political philosophy can face the challenge of the critique of the political. This question is addressed to theories of justice in general, but this paper considers Habermas' position in particular. It advances the thesis that the main theoretical and political problem of theories of justice is that they have not really taken the abolitionist dimension of the concept of justice into account. As a consequence, they run the risk of reproducing in themselves…Read more
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60Reconnaissance, critique sociale et politique: Entretien de Gonçalo Marcelo avec Emmanuel RenaultÉtudes Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies 2 (1): 134-149. 2011.Au cours de cet entretien, Emmanuel Renault nous offre un aperçu de la manière dont la thématique de la reconnaissance est traitée en France aujourd’hui, notamment à travers le renouveau des études sur Hegel et Marx. Il explique la façon dont la reconnaissance a pu s’ériger en paradigme (en dépit de ses usages multiples et variés en France comme ailleurs), au cours de la dernière décennie et le rôle joué par Axel Honneth dans ce procès. Finalement, il explicite sa manière d’envisager la pratique…Read more
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51Biopolitics and social pathologiesCritical Horizons 7 (1): 159-177. 2006.The question of social medicine provides the opportunity to engage in a critical reading of Foucault's theory of biopower. The analyses dedicated by Foucault to `the birth of social medicine' represent one of the few examples of a thorough application of that theory. They allow Foucault to show the heuristic value of the biopolitical hypothesis at the level of the most concrete historical materiality, and not just at that of the general history of the forms of governmentality. These analyses, ho…Read more
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45The Naturalistic Side of Hegel’s PragmatismCritical Horizons 13 (2). 2012.This paper contrasts the Hegelianism of contemporary neo-pragmatism and the Hegelianism of classical pragmatism as it has been reassessed in contemporary Deweyan scholarship. Drawing on Dewey’s interpretation of Hegel, this paper argues that Hegel’s theory of the spirit is in many aspects more akin to Dewey’s pragmatism than Brandom’s. The first part compares Dewey’s pragmatism with Hegel’s conceptions of experience and the theory/practice relation. The second part compares Dewey’s naturalism wi…Read more
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39Critical Naturalism: A ManifestoKrisis 42 (1): 108-124. 2022.The Critical Naturalism Manifesto is a common platform put forward as a basis for broad discussions around the problems faced by critical theory today. We are living in a time, e.g. a pandemic time, when present-day challenges exert immense pressure on social critique. This means that models of social critique should not be discussed from the point of view of their normative justification or political effects alone, but also with reference to their ability to tackle contemporary problematic issu…Read more
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39Marxisme, philosophie sociale et théorie critiqueActuel Marx 47 (1): 188-195. 2010.Critical theory : tradition and current issues In this interview Axel Honneth reviews his personal trajectory, starting out from Marx and proceeding by way of critical theory. He defines his relation to the various currents of contemporary political philosophy and to the various research agendas which are today to the fore in critical theory. Honneth examines the place which a social philosophy can today claim and the question of the current renewal of interest in Adorno
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36Dewey’s Relations to HegelContemporary Pragmatism 13 (3): 219-241. 2016.It is simply a fact that it is not in the same intention that Dewey relates to Hegel in a programmatic article such as “The Present position of Logical Theory,” in his Lectures on Hegel’s Philosophy of Spirit, in his Lectures on the Logic of Hegel, and in the articles collected in The Influence of Darwin on Philosophy. Dewey’s references to Hegel differ in status and functions, and these differences have to be made explicit if one wants to elaborate a consistent account of Dewey’s relation to He…Read more
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35Critical Theory, Social Critique and KnowledgeCritical Horizons 21 (3): 189-204. 2020.ABSTRACT While the first generation of the so-called Frankfurt School has promoted a strong interconnection between social critique and knowledge of the social world, contemporary critical theory seems to consider that epistemological issues don’t deserve anymore consideration. Is it really possible to elaborate a convincing theory of social critique without taking seriously the various links between social critique and knowledge? This article argues that the answer is no. In a first step, it re…Read more
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34Critical Theory and Processual Social OntologyJournal of Social Ontology 2 (1). 2016.The purpose of this article is to bridge the gap between critical theory as understood in the Frankfurt school tradition on the one hand, and social ontology understood as a reflection on the ontological presuppositions of social sciences and social theories on the other. What is at stake is the type of social ontology that critical theory needs if it wants to tackle its main social ontological issue: that of social transformation. This paper’s claim is that what is required is neither a substan…Read more
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31Postfordisme, marxisme et critique sociale en débatActuel Marx 40 (2): 156-168. 2006.The concepts of globalisation and of neoliberalism are symptomatic of the transformations which have taken place in the way the question of social critique has been addressed. The contemporary period has witnessed the emergence of a protocol of social analysis in which political inquiry is linked to historical diagnosis, drawing on the categories of historical periodisation and of economic analysis. The debate is thus, to a certain degree, shifted to the terrain of Marxism. As for the latter, it…Read more
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29Comment Marx se réfère-t-il au travail et à la domination?Actuel Marx 49 (1): 15-31. 2011.How does Marx refer to Work and to Domination ? The interpretation of Marx’s references to work and to domination is a vexed question. Can we say that Marx criticises capitalism in terms of its effects on work ? Or does he criticise capitalism from the standpoint of those subject to domination, and with whom his position is one of solidarity ? Or does he elaborate a description of the unprecedented transformations brought about in the relations of power, which the category of domination is unabl…Read more
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28Dewey's Critical Conception of WorkJournal of Speculative Philosophy 31 (2): 286-298. 2017.ABSTRACT Dewey's critical conception of work deserves consideration because it combines two types of models of social critique that are usually considered separately in contemporary Dewey scholarship. In the syllabus Social Institutions and the Study of Morals, Dewey contends that the valuation of social settings should be grounded on criteria immanent to social experience, and he applies his model of immanent critique to work-related issues. In his philosophy of education, he highlights that in…Read more
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25Sur Marx et les marxismesActuel Marx 48 (2): 129-137. 2010.On Marx et Marxisms. In response to the questions addressed by Jacques Bidet and Bruno Tinel, Gérard Duménil, Michael Löwy and Emmanuel Renault here outline the approach they adopted in their two recently published books on Marx, and on Marxisms . The questions raised here mainly hinge on the articulation between the political, the philosophical and the economic dimension of Marx’s writings, and the way these can be mobilised within contemporary debates
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24Philosophy and Experience: A significant difference between the first and the last versions of Hegel’s EncyclopediaHegel Jahrbuch 2019 (1): 32-43. 2019.
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24Biopolitique, médecine sociale et critique du libéralismeMultitudes 34 (3): 195. 2008.Current debates on neo-liberal governmentality and the medicalization-psychologization of the social constantly refer to Foucault’s theory of biopolitics. I critically examine Foucault’s notions of biopolitics and liberalism as conveyed in his articles on the emergence of social medicine in the 19th century. My thesis is that the movement of sanitary reform is irreducible to the mere development of liberal governmentality and that the idea of social medicine was associated in the period with a c…Read more
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24Dewey, Hook et Mao : quelques affinités entre marxisme et pragmatismeActuel Marx 54 (2): 138. 2013.
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23Du fordisme au post-fordisme : Dépassement ou retour de l'aliénation?Actuel Marx 39 (1): 89-105. 2006.In contemporary political philosophy, the disqualification of the problematic of alienation has to a large extent rested on the conviction that the norms of democracy, justice, and the good life provide a sufficient framework within which to outline a social critique that is politically pertinent. The paradox is that, at the very moment when such a conviction was becoming widespread, its validity was being refuted by the historical reality. It would appear that the casting-off of the Fordist sys…Read more
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23Work and Domination in MarxCritical Horizons 15 (2): 179-193. 2014.The interpretation of Marx’s references to work and to domination is a vexed question. Can we say that Marx criticizes capitalism in terms of its effects on work? Or does he criticize capitalism from the standpoint of those subject to domination, and with whom his position is one of solidarity? Or does he elaborate a description of the unprecedented transformations brought about in the relations of power, which the category of domination is unable to apprehend effectively? The article argues tha…Read more
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22Social Suffering: Sociology, Psychology, PoliticsRowman & Littlefield International. 2017.This is the first English-language translation of an important book that contributes to contemporary debates about social suffering in sociology, social psychology, political theory and philosophy. Renault provides a systematic account of the ways in which social suffering could be conceptualised.
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21From [“Political Ethics”] to [“Social Philosophy”]: The Need for Social TheoryTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 53 (1): 90. 2017.The meanings and functions of the notion of social philosophy in John Dewey’s writings have not really been subjected to serious philological investigation. Until recently, Dewey scholarship has simply equated social philosophy either to political philosophy in general, or to philosophy of education,1 and in recent years we have tended to read this social philosophy from a retrospective point of view, with reference to contemporary debates about social philosophy as an alternative to contemporar…Read more
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20The political philosophy of social sufferingIn Boudewijn de Bruin & Christopher F. Zurn (eds.), New waves in political philosophy, Palgrave-macmillan. 2009.
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18Fin de la politique et émancipation du travail : quand le réalisme rejoint l'utopieCités 59 (3): 33-44. 2014.
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18Arbeit als Ort von Ungerechtigkeit und Herrschaft. Die Grenzen der zeitgenössischen politischen PhilosophieDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 60 (4): 573-592. 2012.
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18L'invisibilità politica del lavoro e le sue eco filosoficheIride: Filosofia e Discussione Pubblica 22 (1): 71-86. 2009.