Abstract
The aim of this article is to contribute to the formulation of a hegelian model in social ontology. In order to do so, I proceed to the evaluation of the uses of the theory of recognition in contemporary debates in social ontology, following a critical perspective as well as a constructive one. On the critical level, I claim that these uses of the theory of recognition are based on questionable foundationalist, intersubjectivistic and idealist presuppositions and therefore prove themselves too narrow to account for the structures of social reality. On the constructive level, I claim that recognition relations are but one particular case of a wider system of «reciprocal actions» that not only includes interpersonal relations, but also relations between individuals, nature and the products of work in the «system of needs», as well as relations between institutions in a processually conceived «ethical life».