WHO IS THE SUBJECT? WHAT IS SUBJECTIVITY?

This article challenges the notion of subjectivity as a timeless, universalcategory by tracing the complex and radically changing meanings of „subject”and „subjectivity” throughout the history of philosophy. It argues that the modernconcept emerged from a crucial medieval synthesis, reconciling Aristotle’s passivehypokeimenon (a substratum that „receives something”) with Augustine’s modelof the soul’s immediate self-presence. Contrary to the Heideggerian narrative thatlocates the origin of modern subjectivity in Descartes, this analysis identifi es Kant’stranscendental turn as the pivotal moment, defi ning subjectivity as the active yetempty structure of experience rather than a substance. The article further demonstrateshow this modern, active subject has been persistently challenged by a countertradition—the „humiliated cogito” or „anti-cogito”—that emphasizes the passivity,impersonality, and constituted nature of thought, from Lichtenberg and Nietzsche tostructuralism and psychoanalysis. Finally, it examines the parallel critique within theAnglo-American analytic tradition, which initially rejected subjectivity as a sourceof error but later engaged with it through the problem of consciousness. The articleconcludes that Thomas Metzinger’s recent claim—that pure consciousness may not bea subjective phenomenon—is not entirely a novel discovery but the latest iteration ofthis ancient debate, favoring the original, passive meaning. The history of subjectivityis thus presented as an unresolved tension between the subject as an active foundationand as a passive product.