Between Reciprocal and Mutual Recognition: Its transits in peace experiences

Abstract

The aim of the article is to show why, if the purpose is to lead a good, happy life in society, and bearing in mind the insurmountable role of conflict within human condition, dialectical complementarity is necessary among the two kinds of recognition, reciprocity and mutuality. It focuses on the subtle but crucial differences between reciprocal and mutual recognition, with the purpose of showing the merits of both concepts for understanding the intricate course of human being towards life together. Struggle for recognition is the expression of the ambiguous and ambivalent tendency of human beings that makes them fragile and disproportionate beings, capable of good as well as evil, of dissymmetry as well as reciprocity, of the aggressive impulse as well as the kindness of love. The capacity to increase the sense of love, of self-criticism over a bad conscience and of the generous efforts for a good life together, which are characteristic of mutual recognition, turns out to be a necessary condition for the initiatives of peaceful struggles for recognition. In the end, those ideas are used to explore some features of peace-experiences in Colombia and to show how the gestures of mutual recognition are necessary to think of a lasting setting of peace situations