The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology

By focusing on the Cartesian subject, this text explores ways in which to reformulate the politics of the Left in the area of global capitalism. In the process, the author touches on the work of prominent thinkers: Heidegger's attempt to overcome subjectivity; the post-Althusserian elaborations of political subjectivity (Ernesto Laclau, Etienne Balibar, Jacques Ranciere and Alain Badiou); deconstructionist feminism (Judith Butler); and the theories of second modernity and risk society (Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck).