The Emergence of Subjectivity in the Ancient and Medieval World: An Interpretation of Western Civilization

The Emergence of Subjectivity in the Ancient and Medieval World presents a philosophical analysis of the development of Western civilization from antiquity to the Middle Ages by tracing the various self-conceptions of different cultures from ancient Mesopotamia to medieval Christendom. It argues that as human civilization took its first tenuous steps, it had a very limited conception of the individual; only in the course of history did the idea of individuality begin to emerge. The conception of human beings as having an inner sphere of subjectivity subsequently had a sweeping impact on all aspects of culture and largely constitutes what is today referred to as modernity.