Subjectivity Transformed – The cultural foundation of liberty in modernity

Thomas Vesting is Professor of Law at Goethe University Frankfurt.

List of Figures Preface § 1 Introduction § 2 Instituting Power § 3 Culture as an Orientation-Forming Symbol System I. The Universalist Heritage of Cultural Theory II. The Dual Character of Modern Culture III. The Challenge of Information Technology § 4 Creative Freedom as a Source of Cultural Dynamics I. Transsubjective Conditions of Subjectivity II. Imagination as Poetic Mimesis III. On the Event Character of the New § 5 Bourgeois Culture I. The Gentleman as a Personality Ideal II. The Technical Attitude to the World 1. The Early Modern Era as a Foundational Phase of Disruption 2. Fulfillment through Tireless Effort? III. The Social Body and the Body Politic IV. Formation of the Subject - In the Mirror of Society V. Legal Subjectivity and the Practices of Liberty Instituted in Society VI. The Alien Claim and Disciplining Subjectification § 6 The Anglo-American Variant: The Gentleman I. Experimental Thinking and Useful Knowledge II. Sociability and Other Virtues III. The Mirror of Society Becomes Better Endowed IV. Inclusive Institutions and Instituting Power § 7 The Continental Variant: Honnête homme and Bildungsbürger I. The Sophisticated World of the Paris Salons II. The German Bildungsroman III. Subjectification as Subjugation and Empowerment 1. Invocation and Subjugation 2. Empowerment by Means of the State § 8 Managerial Culture I. The Rise of Large-Scale Enterprises II. The Research and Development Laboratory III. Trust between Strangers 1. The Legacy of Spontaneous Sociability 2. From the Inner-Directed to the Other-Directed Individual? IV. Managers in America and Germany 1. The American Manager 2. Senior Executives in Germany V. Annex: Images of Corporate Bodies § 9 The Culture of Information Technology I. Homo Digitalis and the Theory of the Network Society II. The Regional High-Tech Cluster III. The Organization of Economic Production 1. Dissolution of Conventional Corporate Boundaries 2. Collective Learning through Informal Institutions 3. Continuous Experimentation: New Contract Models IV. On the Environmentalization of Legal Subjectivity 1. Paradigms of the Development of Technology 2. On the Intelligibility of IT Milieus 3. The Ecotechnological Dimension V. The Relevance of Instituting Power § 10 Epilogue References Notes Index