The Nature of the Self: Recognition in the Form of Right and Morality

The human self is a free self that gets shape in a society in which it is both equal to the others (as the legal person who recognizes the others as free and equal) and unique (as the moral person who is not exchangeable to the others). Therefore, the modern debate on society is dominated by the determination of the relation between right and morality. In a criticism of Habermas, Honneth,Rawls and others, this work argues that this relation has to be developed as a systematic elaboration of the mind-body-relation. In accordance with the Hegelian tradition, recognition first of all concerns the recognition of the body by the mind.