Towards a research methodology for the processes of constitution of subjectivity

Abstract

This article aims to formulate a methodological basis for answering the following questions: how are human beings constituted as subjects, how are subjectivities configured, and can we formulate and follow a methodic for investigating such processes? Although not explicitly proposed by Michel Foucault, such a methodic can be derived from the observations on particular issues about the shaping of subjects in ancient cultures, above all those linked to the notion of self-care, which he formulated in his later writings. In this article, following such observations, such a methodic is sketched at a general level and arguments on its validity are formulated on the basis of an interpretation of the Aristotelian theories of causality as a theory of the formation of entities as agents or products of the action of agents, which in both cases were ontological theories of a general nature.