Law and Philosophy Library: A Critique of Liberal Subjectivity

Santoro, Emilio

Autonomy, viewed as a subject's autonomous designing of her own distinctive 'individuality', is not a constitutive problem for liberal theory. Since its earliest formulations, liberalism has taken it for granted that protecting rights is a sufficient guarantee for the primacy of individual subjectivity. The most dangerous legacy of the 'hierarchical-dualist' representation of the subject is the primacy given to reason in defining an individual's identity. For Santoro freedom is not a fixed measure. It is not the container of powers and rights defining an individual's role and identity. It is rather the outcome of a process whereby individuals continuously re-define the shape of their individuality. Freedom is everything that each of us manages to be in his or her active and uncertain opposition to external 'pressures'.

Details

Published by: Springer

Publication Date: 2003-05-31

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9781402014048

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-0823-4

Dimensions: 234cm x156cm

Pages: 294