Metaphysics of the subject, a misleading linguistic confusion

In this chapter, the author confronts the philosophy of Rudolf Boehm in three movements reflecting on three short texts published all in the 1960s. First the so called ontological difference which is based on a reading and translation of Aristotle’s metaphysic Z and which is at the basis of Boehm’s critique, is discussed relating it to the 'ontological dispositive' from Agamben. Secondly the metaphysics of subjectivity which according to Boehm characterizes the western thought from antiquity to modernity and to the contemporary world and is illustrated by Spinoza’s ethics, is questioned in different ways. Is Spinoza the most appropriated testimony or is he perhaps on the contrary criticizing himself the metaphysics of subjectivity? Thirdly this thesis is corroborated by an analysis of a text of Boehm himself, namely wherein he advances his interpretation of Spinoza’s Short Treatise, in particular on the supposed language in which this treatise has been written by Spinoza, namely Dutch, with a variety of consequences on the content.

ISBN:978-90-441-3600-5

Publication year:2018

Keywords:phenomenology, critique, Spinoza, Metaphysics, Ontology, Categories, Aristotle, philological critique, Agamben