The problem of cogito and the Cartesian subject in the theory of Jacques Lacan

Annotation

This article is devoted to the problem of the subject and the principle of cogito proposed by René Descartes in the context of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory. The authors analyze how the Cartesian statement “Cogito ergo sum” (“I think, therefore I am”) gave rise to the autonomous and rational “Self”, which changed the philosophical and scientific paradigm until the 20th century. Following Sigmund Freud, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan proposed a project of revision of Cartesian subjectivity, emphasising the split of the subject in the registers of the Imaginary and the Symbolic. The authors examine how Jacques Lacan arrives at the concept of cogito as “the subject of the unconscious”. The article also deals in detail with the Lacanian concept of the subject's impossible choice between thinking and being by analogy with the expression “Trick or treat!”. It is demonstrated that René Descartes discovers the absolute existence of the subject, and for Jacques Lacan, cogito is what deprives the subject of such existence. The subject of psychoanalysis is the subject of incompleteness, loss and lack. In addition, the work touches upon Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas about the subject and Ludwig Wittgenstein's theory of language. The authors in the work rely on actual research of such representatives of psychoanalytic tradition as Calum Neil, Mladen Dolar, Slavoj Žižek and others. The article outlines the philosophical and socio-political conclusions from the psychoanalytic interpretation of cogito and subject.

Keywords

• cogito
• subjectivity
• ego
• unconscious
• mirror stage
• big Other
• imaginary
• symbolic
• language
• thinking
• being
* click on a keyword to go to the search

Contribution of the authors

Kazakov D. K. – research issues; conducting the research, justification of the aims and the objectives of the article, writing the draft, final conclusions; Strelnik O. N. – scientific management, conducting the research, follow-on revision of the text, text preparation and editing, approval of the final version.

Popular articles