Judith Butler's Subject Theory And Its Application On Macro-political Level

Subjects are the central concept in Western philosophy,the traditional ones are self-contained,“being-for-oneself” However,with the emergence of the crisis of Western philosophy,the traditional subject view is challenged,and the subject falls into the "death" crisis.Traditional philosophy believes that desire and reason are completely opposite.Reason is regarded as a positive force in human life,while desire is regarded as a negative force.But in Hegel's view,desire is not the opposite of reason.Desire has its inherent rationality,and human beings are the subject of desire.Hegel's subjective view caused heated discussion in the French philosophical community in the 20 th century.At that time,French philosophers tried to criticize and get rid of Hegel's philosophy,but they were always subject to Hegel's philosophy.Judith Butler's philosophical research started from the book “Subjects of Desire”,which embodied “both master and prisoner”,a core problem in all of Judith Butler's later works.The process that French philosophers accepted,criticized,and liberated themselves from Hegelian philosophy,but were dominated by it all long was an investigation in Judith Butler's “Subjects of Desire”,which revealed a subject's contradiction in this procedure.The plight of the subject "both the owner and the prisoner" presented in the book is the core issue in all her subsequent writings.Butler believes that the subject has to accept the shaping of power because of its "fragile nature",and power is inevitably transformed by the spiritual world in the process of shaping the subject.The subject's resistance potential is implicit in the repeated exercise of power.Therefore,on the one hand,power shapes the subject,on the other hand,it is transformed by the force from the spiritual world,and even subverted by the subject's resistance.Power and subject are interdependent in a symbiotic state.The subject has both obedience and initiative,which is determined by the subject's own contradictions.From Butler's point of view,this contradictory feature of the subject is exactly the meaning of the discussion of all specific identity subjects and political subjects.After the "9.11 incident",Butler began to explore more the application of subject theory at the macro-political level.By analyzing specific political events,Butler showed us the logic of denial and exclusion of power.The logic of power denial and exclusion excludes non-standard lives,and even harms the lives and dignity of others in the name of maintaining the lives of "our group".This approach denies the status of the other's life subject,and also denies the subject's own fragile traits,which will only make people's situation into a vicious circle.Butler believes that grief and mourning are also a force against violence.Sadness makes people aware of the connection between communities,makes us sad about the passing of others,and then breaks the melancholic logic of power.And mourning the loss of the other can allow the subject to see its own vulnerability and at the same time recognize the symbiotic relationship between the other and the subject.The acknowledging of the mourning right of each life is the premise of criticizing violence.However,not each life,in reality,has the right to be mourned,this unequal situation is interrelated to the existing status of us all.Butler argued that only by acknowledging the unequal conditions of life mourning can we deal with the issues of equality and violence.Thus,Butler moved towards further radical equality.