Globalization and Human Subjectivity

Insights from Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

Yun Kwon Yoo

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781725297111
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Phenomenology in Philosophy

Globalization and Human Subjectivity argues that Hegelian subjectivity could serve as a philosophical basis for a new conception of human subjectivity for the age of globalization. Why, then, does globalization demand a new conception of human subjectivity at all? What constitutes the Hegelian subjectivity such that it is not only relevant and but also necessary to the contemporary, postmodern context of globalization? This book largely addresses these two questions. Capitalist globalization, the context in which we find ourselves today, strategically leads to the "death of the subject, " in the sense that it reduces human beings merely to consumers who, without critical subjectivity, simply succumb to the imperialism of a globalizing market. In this context, we are impelled to envision a new conception of human subjectivity for the age of globalization. This book explores Hegel's view on human subjectivity as spiritual subjectivity, particularly presented in his Phenomenology of Spirit, which could function as a new anthropological vision about what it means to be authentically human in a globalizing world, that is, a sort of cosmopolitan citizen who is constantly universalizing oneself through self-transcending, self-determined ethico-political actions in solidarity with others to create a global community of co-existence and co-prosperity for all.

chapter 1

Globalization, Postmodernism, and Subjectivity

In this book, as already indicated in the introduction, I argue that Hegelian spiritual subjectivity is relevant and necessary, as a new conception of the human subject, to the contemporary, postmodern context of globalization that imperatively calls for a sort of cosmopolitan, global citizens who are constantly universalizing themselves—in the sense of broadening their capacity for self-transcendence toward otherness and thus making themselves more open to the rest of the world—in and through their self-determined ethico-political actions in solidarity with others to build a global community of justice, peace, and mutual prosperity. My argument is motivated initially by the following questions: What does “globalization” as our Sitz im Leben look like today? What are the specific challenges and problems posed by the process of globalization? In what way does “postmodernism” as a Zeitgeist of today link itself to globalization? Is their connection something insignificant and harmless to the present and future of humanity? All these contemporary and quite existential questions are to be addressed in this chapter, and, as will become clear, the problematic of “human subjectivity” serves as the central theme around which my exploration revolves.

In what follows—as the first step in developing my argument—I will first analyze, though very briefly, some of the main characteristics and challenges of globalization, with special attention to the desired, idealized, or ideologized image of human beings that capitalist globalization advances and promotes. I will then critically examine the postmodernist theme of the “death of the subject” and its possible function to serve as a philosophical justification for the anthropology of capitalist globalization, which will be followed by my insistence on the need for a new, alternative, (post-)postmodern conception of human subjectivity for the age of globalization.

Globalization and Its Anthropology

Before we start talking about globalization in earnest, it would be worth asking ourselves the following questions, seemingly elemental yet indeed quite fundamental. First, why do we—philosophers, religious scholars, or theologians—bother with globalization at all? Why should we care about it? Echoing Anselm K. Min’s insightful observation, my simple answer is that it is precisely because the current ongoing process of globalization creates and determines the context in which we are living today: “The global context is now the context of all contexts.”1 Why, then, does “context” matter in our philosophical, religious, theological studies and praxis? Given the dialectical nature, either implicitly or explicitly, of the humanities in general (including religious studies and theology) as mediating between text and context, between an array of time-honored ideals, truths, values, or traditions and a set of our present socio-historical conditions, it is necessary that our philosophical or theological enterprise seriously pay attention to, correctly point to, and so rightly respond to specific concerns and challenges engendered by the contemporary socio-historical context.

No one seems to deny that we are now living in an already-globalized and ever-globalizing world, which is our determinate context today; that is to say, we are situated in the context of globalization. What is “globalization” precisely? As Ulrich Beck points out, “Globalization has certainly been the most widely used—and misused—keyword in disputes of recent years and will be of the coming years too; but it is also one of the most rarely defined, the most nebulous and misunderstood.”2 Although globalization is a term that lacks a precise definition and has been characterized in a number of different ways by different scholars, it nevertheless might not be impossible to capture the gist of globalization-talks commonly discussed among scholars.3 Aware of the ever-present risk of definition with its characteristic oversimplification, we may be able to define “globalization” by drawing the commonly-implied characteristics of this term without at the same time overlooking its fluidity and complexity. I think that among globalization scholars David Held et al. provide a very comprehensive definition in an elaborate and condensed way as follows: Globalization is “a process (or set of processes) which embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions—assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and impact—generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction, and the exercise of power.”4

Transformations through the extensive, intensive, rapid, and influential process of globalization take place literally in all aspects of contemporary human life, and hence globalization could be best thought of as a multidimensional set of processes, including economic, political, cultural, religious, ecological, technological, and so on. It would be necessary, therefore, to analyze the transformative powers of globalization—and particularly its challenges and problems—that reach into each domain. However, in view of the purpose of this book, my research here is confined to the two important dimensions: the economic and cultural dimensions of globalization. Affecting and interpenetrating each other, as will be clarified, these two dimensions respectively represent the objective and subjective conditions that constitute the “anthropology of globalization.”

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