Lovitt: SUBJEKTITÄT

"Subjectness" translates Subjektität  , a word formed by Heidegger to refer to a mode of Being’s corning to presence in its reciprocal interrelation with what is, namely, that mode wherein Being manifests itself in respect to what is, appearing as subject, as subiectum, as hypokeimenon   (that which lies before). As such, subjectness has ruled from ancient times, while yet it has changed with the change in the destining of Being that took place at the beginning of the modern age and has reached consummation, through Nietzsche  ’s metaphysics, in the subjectness of the will to power. In like manner, throughout Western history what is has been appearing as subject, though with a transformation corresponding to that change in the destining of Being. What is appeared as the hypokeimenon for the Greeks. Subsequently, the character of the hypokeimenon was transformed into the selfconscious, self-assertive subject, which, in its subjectivity, holds sway in our age. Heidegger writes elsewhere that the name "subjectness" "should emphasize the fact that Being is determined in terms of the subiectum, but not   necessarily by an ego  ." Subjectness "names the unified history of Being, beginning with the essential character of Being as idea   up to the completion of the modern essence of Being as the will to power." (The End of Philosophy, trans. Joan Stambaugh   [New York: Harper & Row, 1973], pp. 46, 48. Professor Stambaugh translates Subjektitat as "subiectity.") Later in this essay (pp. 79 ff.), Heidegger will take up the discussion adumbrated in this sentence and this word. (QCT   p. 68)