Interest in the concept of recognition is not old, though it has been addressed in one form or another
by many philosophers and has, in contemporary philosophy, occupied a status that reached the point
of talking about the philosophy of recognition. We propose the concept of recognition as an axis
because recognition is a theoretical and practical problem at the same time; rather, it is a practical
problem that we try to conceptualize and present a philosophical discourse on. Human relationships
cannot be imagined without states of recognition that also generate states of non-recognition. What
compels a person or a group to recognize and remove recognition? This means—in answer to this
question—we must examine the status of recognition in the world of values, the world of interests, and
the world of ideological and political affiliations. The concepts of fanaticism, racism, selfishness, envy,
and negation are present in human life as negations of recognition. This brings us to those values that
create a culture of recognition, which can only triumph by recognizing the right to difference because
the most significant problem is that of accepting or rejecting the different. Acceptance of the right to
difference means recognition, and its denial only means that the other is no longer recognized, which
is why many human conflicts are based on non-recognition. This is evident in the fact that ideological
justifications of interests hide behind a discourse that validates the negation of the other, especially
if the ideology held by a group of people involves the idea of possessing absolute truth and negating
other truths. In this sense, recognition is not based on illusion; rather it is illusion that is the source of
negation and non-recognition.
In our contemporary world, and especially in our Arab world, recognition is teetering under the blows
of all forms of various negations, which is why we have chosen the concept of recognition as the main
focus of our issue.