Social Freedom, the Social Function of Property and Socialism: Revisiting a Classic Theme

Recently, in the tradition of Critical Theory the theme of socialism and its current perspectives have been taken up again, after a long silence. Hauke Brunkhorst, in a more sociological-legal approach, relates socialism with the question of the social function of property. Axel Honneth in turn has reconstructed the idea of socialism philosophically. The text, at first, analyzes the structuring central concepts of these two approaches looking for their contribution to a social theory of medium range in an intersubjective perspective. In a second moment, it discusses recent self-appointed socialist experiences in Latin America in the perspective proposed by Brunkhorst and by Honneth, asking if they could contribute with an antidote to authoritarian tendencies of the recent experiences.