Excessive Subjectivity: Kant, Hegel, Lacan, and the Foundations of Ethics

Dominik Finkelde

Published by Columbia University Press 2017

Excessive Subjectivity

Kant, Hegel, Lacan, and the Foundations of Ethics

Dominik Finkelde

In the series Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture

https://doi.org/10.7312/fink17318

Overview
Contents

About this book

Dominik Finkelde rereads the tradition of German idealism for the potential of transformative acts capable of revolutionizing the social order. He engages thinkers typically seen as opposed—Kant, Hegel, and Lacan—to develop the concept of excessive subjectivity, which is characterized by nonconformist acts that reshape the contours of ethical life.

Author / Editor information

Dominik Finkelde is professor of contemporary political philosophy and epistemology at the Munich School of Philosophy.

Reviews

Richard Boothby, Loyola University Maryland:
Lacan’s reliance on the legacy of German Idealism is widely known, but Dominik Finkelde’s nuanced account of the trajectory of the ‘paradox of autonomy’ through Kant and Hegel to Lacan is nothing short of masterful. One of the more valuable features of Finkelde’s treatment resides in showing not only how the ethical subject acts “excessively,” paradoxically beyond and ahead of itself, but also in demonstrating the points of deep contact of this predominantly continental conception with key figures and problematics in the Anglo-American analytic tradition. An outstanding contribution.

Markus Gabriel, director of the International Center for Philosophy, University of Bonn:
Finkelde's investigation is an impressive and precise inquiry into subjectivity as a distorting factor in any account of how things really are. Ontology as our inquiry into what there is affects what there is in that subjectivity always goes beyond itself. Finkelde's lucid reconstruction of difficult figures like Hegel or Lacan as well as his take on their relationship to Kant shows that subjectivity is a feature of reality and not just a hallmark of the conscious mind. He thereby successfully undermines a problematic cornerstone assumption of contemporary philosophy of mind. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the figures discussed in this book or the topic of subjectivity.

Alenka Zupančič, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts:
Excessive Subjectivity is a compellingly engaging book dealing with a very topical issue, namely the need to address, think, and reconfigure the concept of subjectivity today. Dominik Finkelde does so through a most original bringing together of Kant, Hegel, and Lacan, staging the discussion in terms of both classical and very contemporary problems of philosophy, politics, and ethics. This book was greatly needed!

Paul Livingston, University of New Mexico:
Finkelde incisively interrogates Kant's, Hegel's, and Lacan's theories of subjectivity to produce a timely account of the structure of the "excessive" subject: the subject that is able to break with the established order through its exceptional self-constituting act, thereby producing fundamentally new possibilities for ethical life. Far-ranging and trenchant, this work develops new connections within established theories of subjectivity and offers in its own right a radical new theory of action, practice, and transformation. It will be sought out by all those interested in how the classical and contemporary theory of the subject bears on the broadest problems of thought and action today.

Slavoj Žižek, University of Ljubljana and New York University:
The predominant notion of subjectivity today is the Habermasian project of the mutual recognition of free responsible agents. What disappears in this project is the antagonistic core of subjectivity, a traumatic disturbance inscribed into the very notion of subject from Kant to Hegel. With reference to Lacan, Finkelde forcefully brings back this obliterated dimension: the true meaning of "excessive subjectivity" is that subjectivity is as such an excess. Excessive Subjectivity is not just an important contribution to the topic of subjectivity; it does much more: it redefines the entire field. In short, it is an instant classic.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
List of Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
INTRODUCTION: ON THE NECESSITY OF THE DEED Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. EXCESSIVE SUBJECTIVITY AND THE PARADOX OF AUTONOMY AS ITS PREREQUISITE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2. KANT: THE SPLIT SUBJECT OF ETHICAL AGENCY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
3. HEGEL: THE SPLIT ETHICAL LIFE AND THE SUBJECT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
4. LACAN: SUBJECTIVITY AND THE AUTONOMINAL FORCE OF LAWGIVING Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: September 24, 2018
ISBN: 9780231545778