Subjectivity, consciousness, self-awareness,
and the intentional aspects of perception and apprehension are popular topics in
the contemporary philosophy of mind. A common thread amongst the various
approaches to them has been dissatisfaction with the Cartesian paradigm of a
self-constituted subject that is perfectly free in its volitions and
epistemically transparent to itself, typically presented as standard for the
modern age. Working from the opposite end, historians of philosophy and
ethicists have noted that ancient and medieval ethics operated in a strikingly
different understanding of self. Far from subscribing to the Cartesian notion,
pre-modern moral philosophy generally took its cue from the assumption that
human selfhood is socially construed. Our instinctive apprehension and
evaluation of reality has as much to do with our upbringing as it does with our
conscious acts of cognition and evaluation.
It is in the Middle Ages that these two
lines of thought converge. Historians of philosophy have noted that Descartes’
understanding of subjectivity did not develop in a vacuum; rather, it represents
the culmination of medieval debates, which in turn build on ancient precedents.
At the same time, the virtue ethics tradition underwent significant
transformations, thanks in part to pressures arising from religious and legal
considerations. These include a preoccupation with the freedom of choice and
one’s culpability for the character one acquires.
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