Rather than seeing groups as regressive social forms that threaten the autonomy of the individual, Honneth argues that the 'I' is dependent on forms of social recognition embodied in groups, since neither self-respect nor self-esteem can be maintained without the supportive experience of practising shared values in the group.

Honneth (philosophy, Goethe U., Germany) presents a study of Hegel's theory of recognition, continuing a project of critical theory he started with The Struggle for Recognition. The chapters are organized into four sections starting with a review of the Hegelian roots of the theory of recognition; its systemic consequences in the realms of law and justice, labor, and social research; social and theoretical applications in the realms of international relations and recognition between states, organized self-realization and the paradoxes of individualization, and capitalist modernization; and finally psychoanalytic ramifications in terms of negativity, recognition as the driving force of group-formation, and facets of the presocial self. Distributed by Wiley. Annotation 2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)