subjectivity

objectivity

G.W.F. Hegel

indexicality

river

one-liner

is a 'circulating capacity', which is to say that it is something that is partially gained or lost by hooking up to certain bodies of practice.

Subjectivity seems also to be a circulating capacity, something that is partially gained or lost by hooking up to certain bodies of practice. (Latour 1998: on recalling : 3-4)

is a permanent split. It bears a gap within itself, a wound it can never overcome.

This is the conviction that human subjectivity is permanently split and bears a gap within itself, a wound, an inner distance that can never be overcome : something Lacan demonstrated over and over again in an extraordinarily complex (and dialectical) articulation of the original Freudian models. (Jameson 2006 : pdf.)

is an achieved agency, a victory over the forces of entropy and undifferentiated chaos. It is the urge by which an animal, lacking wholeness, feels to preserve itself by resolving the internal contradictions it encounters (i.e. Hunger at the most basic level).

Subjectivity is an achieved agency, a victory over the forces of entropy and undifferentiated chaos. The wholeness of the organic being is constantly threatened from all sides with 'contradiction,' with the rejection of its ordered harmony. In Hegel's terms, the 'subjectivity of the animal contains a contradiciton' or lack of wholeness and hence feels an 'urge to preserve itself by resolving this contradiction' (ES 381Z). Finally, some 'contradictions' cannot be overcome -disease 'contradicts' the order of an organic subject to the point at which the latter cannot 'maintain and endure' the contradiction any longer. Death is the dissolution of subjectivity.

is an achievement constantly in need of further achievement. It is the nature of all organic being to fight against internal contradiction and to realize its subjectivity in the world through processes such as hunger and satiation.

Thus, subjectivity is inescapably an agent, never a passive spectator on the world.Subjectivity is an achievement, but it is constantly in need of further achievement. ForHegel, then, the nature of all subjectivity is to fight against internal contradiction andto realize its subjectivity in the world. This aim is the immanent aim of all subjects, theaim, in other words, that all subjects have simply in virtue of being subjects (not, thatis, an 'external' function assigned to it by tradition, nature, or God). This aimencompasses and explains all particular aims that an organic being has.(EN 24SZ).

is an effect of late capitalism: Decentered, fragmented, non-essentialized but at the cost of the loss of the acting subject.

There is a tendency to 'celebrate and transcendentalize the decentered and fragmented subject' which is actually an effect of late capitalism. It may allow escape from the essentialized subject, but only by means of losing any kind of acting subject at all (Harvey 1993... Dirks et al. 1994:14 in Martin 1996:55).

is, for the Germans in the late 18th century, characterized by self-realization, not in relation to some ideal order... it is something that unfolds from the subject himself in his own realization, and is first made determinate in that realization.

The expressivist anthropology thus sharply breaks with the modern scientific objectification of nature, at least as far as human nature is concerned (we shall see later how it goes beyond this). In seeing human life as expression, it rejects the dichotomy of meaning against being... it deals once more in the Aristotelian coin of final causes and holistic concepts. But in another respect it is quintessentally modern... for it incorporates the idea of a self-defining subjectivity. The realization of his essence is a subject's self-realization... so that what he defines himself in relation to is not an ideal order beyond, but rather something which unfolds from himself, is his own realization, and is first made determinate in that realization. THis is one of the key ideas underlying the revolution of the late eighteenth century. But it is more than that... it is one of the foundational ideas of the civilization which has grown up since. In different forms, it is one of the major idees-forces which has shaped the contemporary world. It is worth examining further what it involves' (Taylor Hegel 18).

is, in contrast to objectivity, the idea that one does not look at a thermometer to determine how cold people feel.

have subjective and objective facets. When one wants to know the temperature, one does not ask people but consults a thermometer. When one wants to know how warm or cold people feel, one asks them directly because they are the experts on their feelings. If one is interested in inferring the temperature people prefer, given their situation, one can try to observe the temperature into which they put themselves when they have a choice. If one is interested in what temperatures are physically tolerable, one can examine the ranges under which people actually live. If one asks what temperatures are best for people under different conditions, one calculates how much they lose  and gain under various alternatives. These alternative modes of getting at subjective and objective assessments are also used in the field of risk' (DOUGLAS risk and culture 68).

is inextricably involved in the process of constituting objectivity. How this happens is for husserl the 'mystery of mysteries'.

Subjectivity must be understood as inextricably involved in the process of constituting objectivity. Thus, for Husserl, the central mystery of all philosophy, the 'mystery of mysteries' is the question: how does objectivity get constituted in and for consciousness' There is only objectivity-for-subjectivity. (Moran 'introduction to phenomenology :15)

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