Normative Reconstruction, Constructivism and the Idealization of Ethical Life

Bruno Villalobos

Abstract:

The goal of this paper is to make a methodological assessment of Axel Honneth’s project of ‘normative reconstruction’ (Honneth, 2014a). I argue that its main justificatory goal is not accomplished: normative reconstruction fails to offer a superior and distinct model of normative critique to constructivist moral theories. Normative reconstruction abstracts away from historical forms of injustice and domination in a similar way as constructivism. The source of this problem lies in the fact that the practice of reconstruction relies on the privileging of certain ethical experiences at the expense of others, thus producing an idealized and exclusionary image of a given ethical community. Furthermore, reconstruction entails an idealized ontology which hypostatizes social norms and institutions, neglecting their embeddedness in historical relations of power. Rather than providing a practice-sensitive approach, normative reconstruction provides an ‘ideal-as-idealized’ moral model which fails to produce a workable image of social reality from which to engage in normative critique.

Villalobos_2025_Normative reconstruction.pdf

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