Abstract

Charles Taylor has argued that recognition is a vital human need. This essay discusses recognition as a philosophical concept, following a line of argumentation that can be traced back to Hegel’s early philosophy. An important premise of this tradition is that because a subject’s freedom is conditioned by other subjects, individual agency cannot develop without recognition. Moreover, recognition implies struggle, through which self-realization fulfills the conditions of ethical growth. I will examine the educational implications of these ideas in relation to contemporary social philosophy and pedagogical theory, focusing especially on the potential of the theory of social recognition as a critique of calls for symmetric pedagogy. Using Axel Honneth’s work as a reflective surface, I will then draw some conclusions as to how to develop the concept of recognition within the contemporary philosophy of music education.