This book provides a historically informed reconstruction of the
social practices that have shaped the formation of the modern subject
from the early modern period to the present. The formal legal
protections accorded to subjects are, and always have been, latent in
social practices, norms, and language before they are articulated in
formal legal orders.
Vesting argues that in Western societies legal personhood is closely
tied to three ideal types of social personhood - what he calls the
gentleman, the manager, and _Homo digitalis_. By examining these
three ideal types and their emergence in society, we can see that
Western formal law does not bring these ideal types into being but, on
the contrary, they arise from the social and cultural conditions that
they generate and reflect. Correspondingly, Western legal
personhood, or “legal subjectivity,” arises from the history and
culture of Western nations, not the other way around. Therefore,
signature features of Western formal law, particularly its
valorization of the rights of persons (whether natural or nonnatural),
come from the particular sociohistorical cultural developments that
had already generated the strong ideas of social personhood inherent
in the ideal types of the gentleman, the manager, and _Homo
digitalis_.
_Subjectivity Transformed_ is a major contribution to legal and
social theory and, with its original analysis of the formation of
modern subjectivity, it will be of interest to students and scholars
throughout the social sciences and humanities.
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The Cultural Foundation of Liberty in Modernity
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781509553372
Publisert
2023
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Polity
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter