Submitted Abstract
As the first German language work, this dissertation comprehensively examines the work of the legal historian and psychoanalyst Pierre Legendre. His “dogmatic anthropology” addresses issues that are of key importance for the humanities and cultural sciences: How is the individual subject linked with society? What conditions determine human existence? What does ‘truth’ mean in a community and who defines it in what way? His theory explicitly conceived as a criticism of western culture correlates to the rapprochement of these considerations with Freud and Lacan, and connects this psychoanalytical view in a sweeping historical panorama with the question of law. My paper elucidates the key concepts of “dogmatic anthropology”, whereby the particular challenge lies in the analysis of his texts from their interdisciplinary foundations. The main focus is on the constitution of the subject and society in the medium of gaze and its safeguarding required from an anthropological perspective. In this regard, the following questions are particularly relevant: What specific theory of image and text does Legendre create? What is the relationship between them from his point of view, and what importance can be applied to them within his horizon? What way of seeing results from these premises and why can Legendre derive such severe criticisms from them? Finally: What view do these assumptions open up on the current definition of scientificity and Legendre’s own location within the academic field? The subject matter comprises all of Legendre’s writings on “dogmatic anthropology”, with particular regard to the representation and contextualisation of his theory of gaze. The two main sections of the dissertation provide a systematisation and discussion of the basic concepts and superimpose on this endeavour for understanding a reflexion that raises the question of the future potential of the theory. This dissertation arose in the context of a translation and editorial project of the Legendre writings developed in the Department of German Language and Literature (University of Luxembourg), which it reflectively flanks and complements. It was supported by an AFR grant and offers an important basis for any further research in the field of his works.