https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/138773 Wed, 08 Apr 2026 05:44:29 GMT 2026-04-08T05:44:29Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144075 Title: Neoliberalism and the production of new forms of being Abstract: Neoliberalism is identified as the dominant paradigm in contemporary Western politics. The victory over Communism and the Soviet Union is attributed to this political vision that endorses the free market and hyper-capitalism as its main strengths. The political leaders who are viewed as the antithesis and enemies of Communism are staunch supporters and enforcers of the neoliberal worldview. Personages like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan have brought neoliberalism into every household, rendering it the only viable alternative. This process achieved its full potential when even left-wing political pundits adopted neoliberalism as their political and economic strategy. Irrespective of the political spectrum, the main principles of the neoliberal model are advanced and utilised as the blueprint for their policymaking and for setting their agenda. Thus, progressive leaders like Barack Obama or right-wing leaders like Donald J. Trump both fall under the tent of neoliberalism. Irrespective of their social views, they both endorse a business-first approach, prioritising the economy over other considerations. This leads to the emergence of economic theology as the primary governmental paradigm, superseding the political. Therefore, this fully encompassing reality has led me to ask, “How does neoliberal economic theology produce neoliberalised forms of life?” This inquiry emerges from the realisation that contemporary society and life are shaped and defined by neoliberal principles that have become the essence of our zeitgeist. Every individual has been transformed into a neoliberal subject whose purpose is to advance the economy and follow the dictates of the market. Human relations are reduced to trade and competitive relations, and the sense of self is founded on our position in the competitive order and the human capital we have attained. Thus, under neoliberalism, new forms of life are created. These considerations lead to the claim that neoliberalism has the same reality-forming quality found in religions and their theological framework. The market is a fundamental principle upon which all else is founded, effectively making it a theological or essentialist truth. This is most pronounced in Friedrich August Hayek, who declares the market as a spontaneous order not of human design and outside of human knowledge and control. Under this metaphysical guise, reality is reframed according to the workings of this principium. New technologies, like other institutions, are designed to mirror and promulgate the principles of the market because they aim to reflect reality. With Hayek, the market is nature, and its mechanisms are natural laws. This intellectual scheme produces its understanding of life, thus producing forms of life that abide by these laws. This thesis proposes a reading of neoliberalism as a worldview constituted of a secularised theology that produces a normative discourse that categorises humans and their actions. These discourses and conceptual schemas are imposed on the world via forms of dispositif and techniques aided by new technological developments. The conjunction of all these creates forms of power, namely pastoral power, which has jurisdiction and authority over life, leading towards producing neoliberal categories and forms of life. This claim is developed by closely reading Hayek’s theories, presenting these as a monotheistic secularised theology. With slogans like “There is no alternative” and “The market knows best,” no space is left for social and political visions that do not believe in this new theology. Description: Ph.D.(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/144075 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/141956 Title: Loosening tongues : Sándor Ferenczi and the limits of subjectivity Abstract: Trauma has been at the heart of psychoanalytic research since its establishment in the early twentieth century. Despite this, the psychoanalytic community has neglected the works of Sándor Ferenczi, a Hungarian psychoanalyst and a colleague of Sigmund Freud’s, who dedicated most of his research to the analysis of the severely traumatised. While experimenting with different kinds of analytic techniques which disrupted the authority of the analyst, Ferenczi produced a number of key revisions to Freudian theory, particularly to the model of trauma common to psychoanalysis at the time. This is especially apparent in his most seminal paper, “Confusion of Tongues between Adults and the Child”, where he locates the traumatic kernel in the misunderstanding between two languages: the adult’s language of passion, and the child’s language of tenderness. In this dissertation, I analyse the ‘Confusion of Tongues’ and argue that not only is this a theory of trauma, but also a theory of subjectivity – one which describes a subject who would have preferred never to become a subject in the first place. Then, I examine whether it is possible for a subject’s own subjectivity to be undone. To do this, I first turn to Ferenczi’s biological speculations to claim that the subject’s striving to undo their subjectivity leads them to become further entrenched in the ‘Confusion of Tongues’. Second, I examine Ferenczi’s writings on death to argue that the only way a subject can undo their subjectivity is to perform a ‘two-children’ analysis. This is a kind of analysis where two subjects bring each other close enough to death that their subjectivity unravels. Consequently, they can finally speak to each other without the mediation of an adult and thus, with loose tongues. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/141956 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/141955 Title: Staging the problem of metaphysics : reinterpreting antonin artaud through the work of Jacques Derrida Abstract: In 1923, French playwright Antonin Artaud initiated correspondence with editor Jacques Rivière, where he opened up about feeling completely disconnected from his own thoughts. Later on, this intuition serves as the foundation for the majority of his work, revolving around the inability for authentic expression of any kind. Artaud remains primarily within the context of theatre and the visual arts, however his concerns can then be traced to philosophical debates. Jacques Derrida writes extensively about the metaphysical weight of Artaud’s works, and how this idea of an internal severance reveals structural problems embedded in language itself. In this dissertation I argue that the relation between the two figures can be broadened beyond Derrida’s explicit references to Artaud, by relating Artaud’s manifesto for The Theatre of Cruelty to deconstruction as well as Derrida’s concerns with the metaphysics of presence. Parallel to this recontextualization of Artaud, Derrida’s own philosophy shares similarities to the way Artaud approaches the problem of metaphysical limitation, often playing out similarly to acts in a play. Thus, I argue there is a clear connection to be made between performativity and deconstruction. Description: B.A. (Hons)(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/141955 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/139428 Title: A global guardian to address the ecological crisis Abstract: The current global ecological crisis poses an existential threat to humanity. It is characterised by complexity, urgency, inertia and irreversibility, and has serious implications for future generations. The thesis develops the case for a global guardian – a constitutionally limited, legitimate coercive global authority – to secure ecological sustainability. The case is made on the basis of a theoretical framework that is firmly rooted in normative political philosophy and that draws on contractarianism, liberalism, republicanism and deliberative democracy, among others. Through this theoretical lens, I have argued that there is a legitimate case for the development of a globally-binding legal framework that provides effective protection to the global ecological commons as a global public good. A refined conceptual understanding of the global ecological commons is developed to refer to goods that are necessary for the maintenance of Holocene-like conditions on Earth. I have also elaborated three ethical principles of distributive justice that would serve to guide the fair distribution of access to the global ecological commons among states. Finally, the concept of global guardianship is linked to four principles of good governance which are presented as necessary conditions for legitimate global governance. These are sufficiency, subsidiarity, democracy and solidarity. The thesis develops the normative case for global guardianship as a realistic utopia and identifies conditions that are necessary for its realisation. Description: Ph.D.(Melit.) Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/139428 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z