This article raises some questions with respect to the pattern of Lucio Cortella's L'ethos del riconoscimento: what relationship is there between the reciprocity of intersubjective Anerkennung and self-recognition in the labouring activity? How does the political dimension of recognition command a rethinking of the state, reconnecting the institutional dimension of ethical relations to the elaboration of more advanced forms of democracy? What philosophical thought can conceive the horizon of such processes, articulating the originality of recognition at the nexus of nature and history? The conclusion of the article is that it is around these topics that Cortella's work urges the development of a new and constructive Hegelianism that rehabilitates the dialectical potential of contemporary critical theory.
