This work attempts to examine the relevance of the conceptual opposition between modernity and postmodernity on the basis of a typological analysis of the modes of subjectivity and intersubjectivity which are implicated in the integration and the reproduction of a given form of society. We first show that traditional societies rest on concrete and particular modes of personal identity and of mutual recognition, which are integrated together within a common culture, whereas modern societies rest on an abstraction and universalization of forms societally legitimized of subjective identity and of intersubjective recognition. These we propose to designate by the concept of individualism. After presenting the main stages in the construction of modern individualism, we attempt to illuminate some of the implications, but also some of the aporias, that the modern conception of subjectivity and intersubjectivity presents. In the final part of this work, we seek to establish the validity of the notion of postmodernity to define contemporary society. We try to show that the universalist type of individualism, which characterizes modern society and provides its identity, gradually gives way to a "singularist" type of individualism. This latter form of individualism attests to a crisis of personal identity and is associated with the progressive dissolution of any collective identity, that is, of any a a priori intersubjectivity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.74291 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Bonny, Yves |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Graduate Communications Program.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001067755, proquestno: AAINN63522, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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