On Constituting Oneself an Anarchistic Subject
Abstract
In the essay «On Constituting Oneself an Anarchistic Subject», Reiner Schürmann rethinks the figure of the subject in light of late Foucault, drawing on the archaeological-genealogical method as well as the analysis of practices of the self. Reconstructing ethical, moral, and ascetic forms of subjectivation, he traces how the subject is formed at the intersection of discursive and non-discursive configurations of power/knowledge. Special attention is given to the anarchic subject as a figure of resistance within a contemporary isomorphic society oriented toward totalizing homogeneity. For Schürmann, philosophy is conceived as a form of ascetic exercise — a practice of writing capable of exposing and displacing the boundaries of dominant regimes of truth.
Translated from the edition: Schürmann, R., Villela-Petit, M. Se Constituer Soi-même Comme Sujet Anarchique, Les Études Philosophiques, 1986, No. 4, pp. 451–471. © Presses Universitaires de France/Humensis, 1986. Published with the kind permission of the copyright holder. The editors thank Nikita Arkhipov for his assistance with the translation.
Keywords
Michel Foucault, subject, archaeology, genealogy, practices of subjectivation, askesis, anarchism, modernity, Reiner Schürmann
Author Biography
Reiner Schürmann
1941–1993, German-born philosopher, graduate of the Catholic Institute of Paris and the University of the Sorbonne (France), and professor at the New School in New York.
Mariia Romanyuk
Postgraduate Student, Department of Philosophy and Methodology of Science, Faculty of Philosophy, Lomonosov Moscow State University; 1 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation. Editor of the Another One Journal.
References
- Foucault M. Subekt i vlast [Subject and Power] / Intellektualy i vlast: Izbrannye politicheskie stati, vystupleniya i intervyu. Ch. 3. — Moscow: Praksis, 2006. — 320 p. — ISBN: 5-901574-53-2. (In Russian).
- Foucault M. Slova i veshchi: Arkheologiya gumanitarnykh nauk [The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences]. — St. Petersburg: A-cad, 1994. — 407 p. — ISBN: 5-85962-021-7. (In Russian).
- Foucault M. Arkheologiya znaniya [The Archaeology of Knowledge]. — St. Petersburg: Tsentr «Gumanitarnaya Akademiya»; Universitetskaya kniga, 2004. — 416 p. — ISBN: 5-93762-034-8. (In Russian).
- Heidegger M. Heraklit / Gesamtausgabe. Vol. 55. — Frankfurt am Main: Vittorio Klostermann, 1979. — XII. — 406 p.
- Foucault M. Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique. — Paris: Gallimard, 1972. — 587 p.
- Foucault M. Ispolzovanie udovolstviy [The Use of Pleasure] / Istoriya seksualnosti, T. 2. — St. Petersburg: Akademicheskiy proekt, 2004. — 432 p. — ISBN: 5-7331-0304-1. (In Russian).
- Foucault M. Chto takoe avtor? [What Is an Author?] / Volya k istine: po tu storonu znaniya, vlasti i seksualnosti. Raboty raznykh let. — Moscow: Kastalʹ, 1996. — 448 p. — ISBN: 5-85374-006-7. (In Russian).
- Foucault M. Moe telo, eta bumaga, etot ogonʹ [My Body, This Paper, This Fire] / In: Goloborodʹko D. B. Kontseptsii razuma v sovremennoy frantsuzskoy filosofii: M. Fuko i Zh. Derrida. — Moscow: IF RAN, 2011. — 177 p. — ISBN: 978-5-9540-0183-9. (In Russian).
- Dekart R. Razmyshleniya o pervoy filosofii [Meditations on First Philosophy] / Sobranie sochineniy v 2-kh t. T. 2. — Moscow: Myslʹ, 1994. — 633 p. — ISBN: 5-224-00022-5. (In Russian).
- Derrida J. Kogito i istoriya bezumiya [Cogito and the History of Madness] / Pismo i razlichie. — Moscow: Akademicheskiy proekt, 2020. — ISBN: 9785829133474. — P. 56–107. (In Russian).
- Foucault M. Volya k istine: po tu storonu znaniya, vlasti i seksualnosti. Raboty raznykh let [The Will to Truth]. — Moscow: Kastalʹ, 1996. — 448 p. — ISBN: 5-85374-006-7. (In Russian).
- Foucault M. Zabota o sebe [The Care of the Self]. — Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, Grunt, Refl-buk, 1998. — 288 p. — ISBN: 5-87983-074-8. (In Russian).
- Foucault M. Pourquoi étudier le pouvoir: la question du sujet / Dits et écrits. T. IV. — Paris: Gallimard, 1994. — 895 p. — ISBN: 978-2070739899.
- Foucault M. Des supplices aux cellules / Dits et ecrits. T. 2 (1972—1975). — Paris: Gallimard, 1994. — P. 716–720. — ISBN: 978-2070762903.
- Nietzsche F. Tak govoril Zaratustra [Thus Spoke Zarathustra] / Polnoe sobranie sochineniy: V 13 t. T. 4. — Moscow: Kulturnaya Revolyutsiya, 2007. — 432 p. — ISBN 978-5-250-06018-9. (In Russian).