„Nigdy nie byliśmy podmiotami”: uwagi w kwestii „śmierci podmiotu”
"We have never been subjects": remarks on "subject's death"

Author(s): Andreas Arndt
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: death of the subject; subjectivity; Hegel; Nietzsche; Heidegger; Foucault; Latour
Summary/Abstract: Going against the mainstream, the author claims the postmodern slogan announcing the „death of the subject” to be unfounded. To justify his hypothesis that we have never been subjects, the author argues along with Nietzsche, Heidegger and Foucault, as iconic contributors to the idea of eroding subjectivity. According to Nietzsche, each deed requires its agent, so the latter must be invented. Heidegger introduced his notion of hypokeimenon. Foucault first refused – and then reintroduced – the subject: the author is more than a projection, he said. The second part of the chapter addresses Hegel’s notion of the subject from a broad perspective. In Hegel, the individual subject is not just sublated by the universal spirit or the Absolute. Rather, the individuality only appears in the universality, it is subjective and, simultaneously, it is not. What is essential in Hegel’s concept of subjectivity is that unlike the object, the subject does not incorporate stability and persistency. She does not even ‘objectify’ herself as an artist/author; she just puts her entire individual character into her artwork. To Hegel, the subject is only a formal aspect of acting. The author shows that Hegel was the very first protagonist of the „death of the subject”.

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