Beyond Recognition: Belonging as a Scientific, Evolutionary, and Post-Essentialist Foundation for Social Philosophy

Theories of recognition have transformed contemporary social philosophy by demonstrating that identity, dignity, and justice are fundamentally relational achievements. This article argues that recognition remains philosophically incomplete because it presupposes more fundamental structures of belonging. Drawing upon contemporary science, it develops the Philosophy of Belonging as a post-essentialist reconstruction of social philosophy grounded in four principles: being is belonging; synchrony and diachrony; imperfect belonging; and stratified reality. Recognition is reinterpreted as a historically contingent form of belonging rather than its foundation. The article further develops an evolutionary interpretation of institutions, capitalism, and globalization, arguing that contemporary crises reflect a global belonging deficit rather than merely deficits of recognition.