This is from a paper I found on the web, on subjectivity and mathematics education, perhaps prompted by my recent return to teaching calculus, however briefly, which has reawakened my interest in the subject. Especially now, when I realize that i am not really, passionately interested in most of what happens in the world, in the things that people take interest in. The stuff we talk about: music, movies, sports, politics, tech, food–you see all of that in our conversations everyday, and yet what i think about is what is NOT included on the list. I mean most of what we talk about has its root in mass culture, as opposed to elite artistic or intellectual culture. There’s nothing wrong with that, but sometimes i step back at this and think “you know what, i just dont want to be a part of this anymore. And then, inevitably, i think of being atop a hill, with a glimpse, from between the hills, of the Mediterranean. and i think about a simple life, and i think about a life free from working for the Man, that is, i think of what life could be like if i didn’t have to sell my soul to corporate capitalism or pay attention to its creations and cultural artifacts. Because capitalism’s greatest achievement is not the particular objects but how it’s won hearts and minds, molded us in the shape of the consumers that they dream of seeing, turning us into the market that will make them rich. In any case, this creeping sense of alienation has made me think more and more about what it is that constitutes the self, the sense of who you are, the feeling of belongingness or estrangement from one’s cultural world. and so i read this passage and thought it was interesting:
Self has often been understood as the biological entity held together by a cognitive
unity, but as Lemke (1995, p. 82) argues, from a “post-modern view this was a massive
sleight of hand. Even within the natural sciences there is no guarantee that physical, chemical and biological definitions of an organism coincide for all purposes”. Subjectivity is constituted discursively, defined by participations in a multitude of discursive practices. As such subjects identify with something outside of their selves. They identify with and partake in social discourses and through these identifications craft their subjectivity. Although possessiveness of one’s subjectivity is also in question since subjects are acting out aspects of previously formed languages, trying them out for size, but never quite fitting (Althusser, 1971). As such subjects are “alienated” from their discourse.
