Recognition, freedom and ideology in Axel Honneth: the case of the “good” mother ideals

Abstract

This article seeks to discuss the category of ideological recognition, as outlined by Axel Honneth. It also seeks to present elements for an alternative diagnosis to the one presented by the German philosopher in recent works: if it is true that the emotional appeals to the “good” housewife are evidently unraveling, as Honneth correctly diagnoses, the same cannot be said of the models of a “good” mother, which must be taken for what they truly are, that is, ideological forms of recognition, not only from the past, as Honneth argues, but also from the present, however modified they may seem at first sight. An an investigation of this kind - with, against or beyond Honneth -, places the debate in the Brazilian context and makes the gendered division of labor a privileged object of analysis.

Keywords:
Axel Honneth; Recognition; Freedom; Ideology; Motherhood