Conditions of Possibility for Subjectivity; from death drive to ideological fantasy

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Political science, Faulty of Law and Social Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

This research investigates the problem of the Subject and the modalities of its conceptualization within the framework of contemporary philosophy. In this context, both the critique of the modern substantial subject and various scientistic approaches have converged to negate the subject’s ontological truth. In response to this trajectory, the present study re-evaluates the nexus between German Idealism (specifically Hegel and Schelling) and Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalysis through the lens of Slavoj Žižek’s scholarship. By doing so, it elevates the status of the subject from a mere empirical or psychological category to an ontological one. The findings suggest that the subject is not a positive entity but rather a gap or a "constitutive negativity" that constitutes the intersection of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and politics. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a genealogy of these three domains and to elucidate the possibility of their convergence, thereby delineating a new horizon that conceptualizes the human psyche and the unity of Being through the prisms of lack and negativity. This inquiry ultimately seeks to facilitate an understanding of the political as an ontological category, while providing a framework for the critique of ideology, the political subject, and the redefinition of emancipation and freedom.

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