The Adult – Child Relation and Decentration of the Subject

Article

Abstract

[In Russian]

The paper is aimed at examining into the question why and
to what extent the post-metaphysical strategy of «decentration
of the Subject» should be understood (realized) in regard to
the intergenerational – child/adult – difference given that such
«generational decentration» might have far-reaching practical
implications. In clarifying the interconnection between the philosophical
and moral self-understanding of the (Adult-)Subject of
Modernity, on the one hand, and concrete practices of relation
to children, on the other hand, the author reveals that «dialectics
of Enlightenment» consisted also in a specific ambivalence of the
image of child who was conceived both as a «not-yet-a-subject»
and as an idealized paradigm for self-understanding of the adult
person. It has been demonstrated that a new scholarly constellation
indicating the radical re-thinking of both a child, as a social
actor, and intergenerational experience in general involve a
philosophical perspective too. In this regard, the author argues
that philosophy can help in developing the a-subjective approach
which only can let overcome a number of methodological deadlocks
faced by contemporary studies of childhood.