Abstract

The proposal contained in the recent book by Axel Honneth, "The Idea of Socialism", is to expose socialism as an ideal form of life, founded not on the value of equality but on the value of freedom. Its limit is to reduce the different forms of freedom that characterize Hegelian ethical life to a single model founded on fraternity and as a global alternative to capitalism. On the contrary, we should think socialism as an experimental and fragmentary way starting from the plural forms of freedom that already exist and already operate in our societies. Socialism does not end but survives as a negative idea that is built by trial and error, starting from both the contradictions and the potential of the present.