Subjectivity and Living Work in Michel Henry’s Phenomenology of Life

Authors

Abstract

From his analysis of Marx’s thinking on economic and social reality, the French philosopher Michel Henry establishes that subjectivity, or more precisely life, is the ground of economy because work as “living praxis” defines reality. Living work produces and keeps in being; it is the only one that produces value. This conception of phenomenology of life considers work as a constitutive and necessary element of the subject itself, and not only a contingent and expendable one. Finally, showing living work as grounding the possibility of economics permits Henry to propose as a fundamental aim of philosophy the elucidation of the transcendental genesis of science’s concepts, and from this, its epistemological relevance.

Keywords:

Henry, Marx, subjectivity, living work, phenomenology