In this article we discuss the centrality of the concept of experience in Axel Honneth and André Gorz. Such centrality is not always explicit, but underlies within its theoretical formulations. In his recent book, "Reification", Honneth starts off from his theory of recognition to propose a contemporary elaboration of the reification concept in the form of the oblivion of recognition. In Metamorphoses of work and The immaterial, André Gorz adopts as his starting-point the ideas of non-economic rationality and general intellect, respectively, to postulate the existence of experiences of a utopian potential. In both thinkers, elements of Adorno's category of "not identical" are present, as well as intertwinements with the phenomenology of Heidegger and Sartre. Both authors postulate the problem of "experience" in critical theory debates.
Experience; Critical theory; Not identity; Emancipation; Capitalism