Rethinking the human subject through Judith Butler’s concept of vulnerability

Abstract

Drawing on feminist critiques of the modern subject, this article questions the concept of the autonomous subject. It examines the alternative proposed by Judith Butler: a model of the subject grounded in vulnerability. It is argued that Butler’s conception relies on a relational process ontology, elucidated through Simondon’s theory of individuation, where the subject is conceived as an ongoing relational formation within the complex web of ties known as the milieu. In this context, vulnerability emerges not as an individual attribute or subjective state, but as a condition grounded in the fundamental interconnectedness of individuals and their inevitable dependence on the milieu that constitutes and sustains them. Butler’s concept of vulnerability is analysed through two dimensions – bodily and linguistic – which highlight the subject‘s fundamental exposure to others and dependence on material structures and social norms. The article demonstrates that vulnerability is an ambivalent relational condition that simultaneously enables the existence of living beings and exposes their self-insufficiency and fragility.