From the Cartesian subject to the identity subject: on the narcissistic nature of suffering

Abstract

My paper has a speculative character. It intends to present the origin of the identity subject in Cartesian philosophy. My thesis is that Descartes founds the modern subject in his identity with the awareness that he keeps to himself of his own interiority. This identity character of the Cartesian subject can be understood from a narcissistic perspective, at the center of which is the ego’s attempt to maintain its own integrity. Thus, I maintain that Descartes inaugurates, in a certain sense, the identitarianism.