Vägval i subjektivitetens historia

Abstract

Crossroads in the History of Subjectivity A Genealogy of the Subject as Posthumanism avant la lettre If the constitution of the modern subject is indebted to Descartes’ self-grounding and self-positing of the subject of thought and knowledge, this article discusses how some of the period’s libertines and moralists in the wake of Montaigne articulated a counter-discourse to this dominating form of subjectivity. I argue that they point to a pathway for the modern subject grounded in an art of existence rather than in Descartes’ cogito. Special attention is given to their reception of Montaigne’s critique of human sovereignty. Focussing on the discussion about the animal-human relationship in Descartes and La Fontaine, but also on the latter’s relationship to Madame de Sablière as well as to the period’s court society and salon culture in general, the article’s purpose is to highlight the plurality of early modern subjectivity, and its relevance for current theories of posthumanism and critique of the modern subject.

Keywords

• Reason
• Passion
• Power
• Subjectivity