ABSTRACT
The English word subject is derived from the Latin subjectum, the translation of the Greek hupokeimenon. Subjectum, used in the late sense of subject by Minneius Felix Martianus Capella, the 5th century ce African writer, is the neutral past participle of subjicere, to put below, to subject. The theme of the exteriority of the modern subject with respect to the world, and vice-versa, has given a particular meaning to existence, a word derived from the Latin existere, to stand outside. Since the most important European languages all are similar to English in that respect, they probably have facilitated the hypostasis of the notion of subjectity and the concentration on the human subject alone. The notion of the subject implies, to say the least, the very foundations — the hupokeimena — of the modern western worldview and cannot be imported like a manufactured product.
