Il «diritto della libertà» nel nostro tempo: ripercorrendo criticamente Das Recht der Freiheit di Axel Honneth

This article focuses on Axel Hon- neth’s latest book, “Das Recht der Freiheit”: I briefly describe Honneth’s critique to con- structivism, which introduces his proposal of elaborating a theory of justice through the device of «normative reconstruction». With respect to this point, I argue that, in choosing the basic principle from which to reconstruct the normative configuration of modern so- cieties, Honneth should have accorded to the ideal of equality (at least) the same importan- ce as to the principle of freedom. I then out- line the three spheres of negative, reflexive and social freedom, and the internal articulations of this latter sphere: affective relationships, market economy, democracy. While recognising several new elements which bring Honneth’s proposal to a very high level of inclusiveness and theore- tical refinement, I object to the author’s overly-irenic depiction of the sphere of family relations and point out some inconsistencies in the sphere of market economy: it is sometimes unclear, to me, if this should be understood as an intrinsically normative sphere (as in the tradition of the «moral economy»), or, on the contrary, as a sphere essentially made of systemic and supra- individual dynamics, in need of being normatively regulated “from the outside”.