Gadamer (1995/2000:276-277) – Sujeito

Now, of course, behind the concept of intersubjectivity stands the concept of subjectivity. One might even say that the concept of intersubjectivity is only comprehensible once we have expressed the concept of subjectivity and of the subject, and its role in phenomenological philosophy. The impression given by the word subiectum and the concept of subjectivity, has been that “subject” means something like self-reference, reflexivity, “I-ness.” This has seemed self-evident to us, but one gets no such impression from the Greek word hypokeimenon  . This word means “that which underlies.” One finds the word in Aristotelian physics and metaphysics, and in such contexts it has a long history in Latin, as substantia   or as subiectum. Both of these are Latin translations of hypokeimenon, which is, and means, that which remains unchanged as it underlies the process of all change. Aristotle   introduces this concept in his treatment of nature. Regarding what occurs in nature, he distinguishes between what may sometimes happen to a thing, and the thing to which this happens. This Aristotelian distinction is anticipated already in Plato  , who distinguished between the “what,” the ti, and the “how,” the poion. The Aristotelian turn towards physics brings this concept of the subject, which is also grammatical or logical, very close to that of hyle  , as the concept of matter, and to the conceptual apparatus of Aristotle’s metaphysics of [277] substance. One may well ask how, from this original orientation, there could develop the modem concept of subject and subjectivity, with its particular connotation.

The answer is obvious. It came through the Cartesian cogito   me cogitare, which gained world renown through John Locke. It was given an epistemic primacy as the unshakable foundation which endures in the face of all doubts quamdiu cogito, as long as I think, no matter what I think. It is, so to speak, the substance of all our ideas. The concept of subjectivity developed out of this. Kant   gave the word and the concept further primacy when he recognized the function of subjectivity in the transcendental   synthesis   of apperception, which must be able to accompany all our ideas, and which gives them unity. Just as in nature changing conditions or events happen to something that remains unchangeable, so too the changing ideas have a basis in that they belong to a remaining I. This is the historical framework in which the transition from substance to subject took place.

Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity, Subject and Person (2000, p. 276-277)