The return of the subject: An articulation of the subject in a deconstructive framework

Luc Ferry and Alain Renaut in their book French Philosophy of the Sixties: An Essay on Antihumanism (1985) argue that the postmodern movement went astray when it rejected the existential subject as metaphysical. This is an oversimplification of their argument, but I think that their basic argument for the reintroduction of the subject to achieve an authentic humanism is correct. Although, I think Ferry and Renaut make the mistake of assuming they must reject postmodern thought all together to be able to reestablish a humanism, I argue that the philosopher Lev Shestov (A Russian existentialist) offers an interpretation of the subject, and system building in general, that is compatible with the systematicity expounded by Derrida and deconstruction. Unlike Ferry and Renaut, who argue that the postmodern tradition is a doomed antihumanism, I think that the postmodern framework offered by deconstruction--and facilitated by voluntarism--is able to give an articulation of the subject adequate for a "new" humanism.Chairman: Patricia E. Dixon.