Subject as Socio-Cultural Creature

Abstract

In this paper, the authors develop the claim that cognitive abilities of a subject are revealed in his relations to other subjects and that the relational self is constitutive for being a subject. A subject becomes the subject owing to his being in cognitive relations with other subjects, and these relations allow him to create collective (plural) subjects: “we”. However, to achieve it , he needs to have an ability to recognize and take the perspective of other subjects. In this article, we show how these relations are realized in praxis on the basis of examples provided in psychology and philosophy. On such an interdisciplinary account, culture is understood as a collection of cumulated perspectives, due to the subject’s ability to form collective subjects. This ability also explains how, within the frame of perspectives, a subject builds his identity by assimilation of the perspectives of others in the process of enculturation, e. g. by learning.