Who is the Subject? What is Subjectivity?
Who is the Subject? What is Subjectivity?

Summary/Abstract: This article challenges the notion of subjectivity as a timeless, universal category by tracing the complex and radically changing meanings of "subject" and "subjectivity" throughout the history of philosophy. It argues that the modern concept emerged from a crucial medieval synthesis, reconciling Aristotle's passive hypokeimenon (a substratum that "receives something") with Augustine's model of the soul's immediate self-presence. Contrary to the Heideggerian narrative that locates the origin of modern subjectivity in Descartes, this analysis identifies Kant's transcendental turn as the pivotal moment, defining subjectivity as the active yet empty structure of experience rather than a substance. The article further demonstrates how this modern, active subject has been persistently challenged by a counter-tradition—the "humiliated cogito" or "anti-cogito"—that emphasizes the passivity, impersonality, and constituted nature of thought, from Lichtenberg and Nietzsche to structuralism and psychoanalysis. Finally, it examines the parallel critique within the Anglo-American analytic tradition, which initially rejected subjectivity as a source of error but later engaged with it through the problem of consciousness. The article concludes that Thomas Metzinger's recent claim—that pure consciousness may not be a subjective phenomenon—is not entirely a novel discovery but the latest iteration of this ancient debate, favoring the original, passive meaning. The history of subjectivity is thus presented as an unresolved tension between the subject as an active foundation and as a passive product.

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