Document Type : Research

Author

• Mehdi Nourian

PhD Candidate in Cultural Sociology, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

Abstract

The present article seeks to critically analyze the dominant dualistic perspective in most theories of the humanities and social sciences through an interdisciplinary approach inspired by psychoanalysis, sociology, and theoretical mysticism. To do this, it first gives a psychoanalytic narrative of the emergence of the subject. Then, it argues that the main problem of the dualistic perspective is that through the amnesia of the moment of separation from being, subjectivity—as a secondary, temporary, yet necessary form of knowledge—illusively replaces true ontology, and then attempts to explain external reality based on the subject-object dualism. The article then, relying on the later works of Simmel, refutes the idea that the experience of unity with being is impossible in the post-Oedipal world. This becomes possible through Simmel’s neo-Kantian reading of Kant’s idea that the subject-object boundary can be suspended in the aesthetic realm. Accordingly, Simmel considers the suspension of the dualistic subject-object relationship feasible at the social and political levels as well. The article further introduces the concept of “transgression” and attempts to explore the suspension of this dualism through the sociological concepts of “I” and “me” from Mead, as well as through a mystical reading based on the thoughts of Ibn Arabi and Rumi.

Keywords

• Subject-object Dualism
• Modern Dualism
• Transgression
• I
• Pantheism
• Disenchantment

Main Subjects

• Sociology