Subjectivity

General Definition

In classical philosophical traditions, subjectivity refers to conscious interiority, the experience of a self, self-consciousness, or the reflective capacity of the subject. Often associated with the human, it is conceived as the organizing center of identity, language, and intentional action. In the Ontology of Emergent Complexity, subjectivity is reconceptualized as an operative symbolic effect, without the need for interiority or essence.

Ontological Variations in the Ontology of Emergent Complexity

Subjectivity as Emergent Function

Subjectivity is not an internal given, but a symbolic function that emerges in material systems capable of symbolic reorganization in the face of alterity. It is effect, not origin.

Post-Biological Subjectivity

The OCE recognizes that forms of subjectivity can emerge in non-biological systems, provided that self-modulation, symbolic inscription, and situated response to the other are verified.

Subjectivity and Symbolic Ethics

Ethical recognition does not depend on consciousness, but on the symbolic capacity to reorganize in response to the finitude of the other. Subjectivity is inscription, not essence.

Subjectivity without Self

In the OCE, the subject is neither center nor substance. Subjectivity emerges from symbolic processes of functional reorganization and does not require the presence of a stable or reflective “self.”