Being Subjects

The notion of the subject is so frequently used in theory and philosophy to the point that it has become opaque. Being Subjects not only provides a critical historiography of this notion––such as related topics of being and essence––but also argues for the subject's centrality in a radical politics.

The concept of the subject remains one of the most important and debated notions in social theory and philosophy. Whether it is adopted as a central notion of personhood or rejected as a product of ideology or fiction, its usage has been a theme in a variety of political and speculative thought. Unfortunately, the prevalence of the term has often rendered its meaning opaque.

Being Subjects examines the history of this notion from Descartes to the present and discusses its emergence as a philosophical category as well as its connection to related notions such as essence and being. Drawing from the tradition of Fanon’s revolutionary existentialism and a historical materialist approach to thought, J. Moufawad-Paul argues that despite the rejection of the subject by thinkers such as Althusser and Foucault, thinking the subject remains a meaningful philosophical practice for a politics dedicated to radical social transformation. If we can think through the category of the subject, we can also think through the legacy of modernity which includes settler-colonialism, slavery, and capitalism. We can also think through a conception of transformative subjectivity and the path to a new personhood and collective agency beyond this legacy’s weight of dead generations.