FROM PHILOSOPHY TO THE POLITICS OF RECOGNITION: HEGELIAN FOUNDATIONS AND TAYLOR’S INTERPRETATION

Abstract

The article “From the Philosophy to the Politics of Recognition: Hegelian Foundations and Taylor’s Interpretation” explores the evolution of the concept of recognition – from its metaphysical roots in Hegel’s philosophy to its ­socio-political articulation in Charles Taylor’s theory of multiculturalism. The study focuses on how Hegel conceived recognition as a fundamental process of the formation of self-consciousness, identity, and sociality, while Taylor transformed it into a practical political principle that determines the strategies of interaction between cultures in modern democratic societies.
The first part of the article analyzes Hegel’s concept of recognition as an ontological mechanism through which consciousness becomes self-consciousness and attains freedom only through reciprocal acknowledgment by others. The dialectic of “lordship and bondage” reveals recognition as the foundation of moral and legal relations and as a condition of social existence itself. The formation of law, civil society, and the state is interpreted as a historical evolution of recognition, which overcomes struggle and culminates in institutionalized freedom.
The second part addresses Taylor’s reinterpretation of Hegel’s legacy within the context of contemporary identity politics. Drawing on Hegelian intersubjectivity, Taylor develops the concept of the “politics of recognition,” emphasizing that both individual and collective identities are constituted through mutual acknowledgment. Unlike liberal universalism, which tends to impose a single model of equality, Taylor defends the “politics of difference,” which respects cultural particularity as a prerequisite for genuine equality and social justice.
At the same time, the article discusses key critiques of the politics of recognition. Scholars such as Susan Moller Okin and Lawrence Blum argue that recognition policies risk essentializing cultures, portraying them as static and closed, while real cultural life remains fluid and internally diverse. Okin also warns that uncritical tolerance of traditional practices may legitimize inequality, particularly patriarchal domination, under the guise of cultural respect. Other theorists, including Todd Gitlin, Paul Kelly, and John Gray, contend that Western multiculturalism often becomes a form of symbolic politics – a bureaucratic rhetoric of tolerance that fails to address deep social contradictions. Consequently, while Taylor’s ideal of mutual recognition preserves its humanistic significance, its application in ­post-industrial societies faces numerous practical limitations.
Ultimately, the article argues that recognition functions as both a philosophical and political category – a bridge between individual self-realization and collective coexistence, between Hegel’s dialectics of freedom and Taylor’s project of multicultural democracy.