Reconstruction and indignation: On the transformative potential of the latest model of Axel Honneth’s Critical Theory

This paper analyses the transformative potential of Axel Honneth’s latest model of Critical Theory and is divided in three sections. Firstly, it will be presented the criticisms towards Honneth’s latest model of Critical Theory revealing the largely shared assumption that normative reconstruction is responsible for a conservative bias. The second section will focus on Honneth’s “reconstrutive turn” exposing its reasons and outcomes. (II). The third section will then discuss how reconstructive critique is related to a genealogical proviso that will metacritically denounce the increasing gap between historical promises and the institutional provisions for their fulfillment; a gap that will be the source of the potentially revolutionary sentiment of moral indignation (III). Finally, the text will sketch some brief considerations on the relation of this feeling of indignation and Honneth’s commitment to a renewed idea of socialism.