Historical subject
Encyclopedia : H : HI : HIS : Historical subject
Historical subject is in itself an oxymoron. If, in philosophy, a subject deigns a non-historical presence, an eternal substance, then how could the subject be historicized without keeping this ahistorical, essential core of this subject on which change glides over?
Nietzsche's critique of the subject was based on the fact that substances didn't exist, as everything was composed of a multitude of lines of forces, cris-crossing to form temporary combinations, taking advantage over other ones, and thus being crystallized, for a moment, in the form of a conscience. Heidegger later traced the concept of subject to the core Greek concept of ousia ("substance"), demonstrating that it was simply not possible to just "historicize" the subject to "get rid" of him. However, the term "historical subject" is sometimes used in a loose sense by Michel Foucault, in which case it is at the same time opposed to the eternal and transcendent subject of the juridic and philosophical discourse yet still naming it as an object. He then, in its stead, proposes a "historical and political discourse".
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