Axel Honneth: A Socialism for the 21st Century

By Hernán B. Aliaga

Continuing with our philosophical vignettes from Berlin, we comment this time on a German philosopher known for his Recognition Theory which explicitly acknowledges the intersubjectivity of human agency. But what if that intersubjectivity is brought together and made coalescent in the realm of politics but not as a State plan but as a renovated way of living?

What if I told you that to dream of socialism is still possible —but not as before, not as an administrative utopia or a state blueprint, but as a way of life where your freedom only flourishes if the freedom of those around you also flourishes?

That is what Axel Honneth proposes in The Idea of Socialism. Far from ideological nostalgia or revolutionary voluntarism, this book offers something different: a call to review, update, and rescue the moral impulse that once animated socialism and make it relevant to our contemporary societies.

Honneth does not write from an ideological trench, but from a fundamental normative concern: to find a way of life that—just as it was dreamt more than two hundred years ago—harmonizes freedom, equality, and solidarity. Not through imposition or sacrifice, but as a vital framework in which each value reinforces the other two.

Is that even possible in individualistic, complex, and highly differentiated societies? Honneth believes it is—but only if we rethink the concept of socialism from within.

It is not enough to assume that interests will coordinate themselves through the market, nor that the State can plan a common morality. Above all, it is not enough to oppose individual freedom and collectivism. We must rethink freedom as a socially mediated experience—that is, social freedom, Honneth’s key proposal.

Social freedom means that my autonomy is only realized in and through relations of mutual recognition, where individuality is nourished by solidarity rather than set in competition with it.

This idea—profoundly Hegelian yet adapted to the present—is developed across three spheres of social life:

1. Personal relationships.
Honneth argues that twenty-first-century socialism must ensure that all people can satisfy their emotional and bodily needs in reciprocal affective relationships—free from domination, exclusion, or unwanted dependence.

2. The economic sphere.
He proposes that productive and labor activities should be organized so that individuals are not forced into savage competition or left at the mercy of market randomness, but can instead experience work as a valuable and socially recognized contribution.

3. The political sphere.
He claims that political self-determination is only real when everyone effectively participates in shaping collective decisions—not as spectators, but as actors endowed with voice and recognition.

All this implies leaving behind the classic figure of the proletariat as a revolutionary subject, as well as the idea of ​​a society centrally administered by the State. For Honneth, the future of socialism lies not in economic planning but in the radical democratisation of our ways of life.

As he writes:

“A revised socialism must aim for a form of social life in which individual freedom thrives not at the expense of solidarity, but with its help. When each member can satisfy their shared need for bodily and emotional intimacy, economic independence, and political self-determination with the full confidence that those around them will care and provide assistance, then we will finally have a truly social society.”

Hernán B. Aliaga is a writer and a social philosopher. He is a former lecturer at Pontificia Universidad Católica, Peru. He has been educated between Lima and Berlin where he now lives and is working on his doctoral thesis on social theory. He is an active commentator on social media. This is the first of a series of articles on social philosophy for Perro Negro in English. Most have already posted in Spanish in his Instagram page. You can also follow him on https://hernanbaliaga.substack.com/ and TikTok