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The theory of justice is possible only as a theory of society. According to Axel Honneth’s recent work, Freedom’s Right, the justification of norms does not consist in a constructivist foundation but in their rootedness in the social institutions of recognition. In the spirit of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Honneth sees in social institutions not only the historical conditions of mutual recognition but also the source of our autonomy and the condition of our self-realization. To support his thesis he applies the Hegelian method of «normative reconstruction», freeing it from all metaphysical bonds