What Does it Mean to Be Nobody?

“Being somebody is rough, but being nobody is out of the question,” Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy against the Human Race.

What does it mean to be nobody when we are all convinced that we are somebody? And that it is “good” to be somebody rather than “nobody.” Starting with this question, in this course we explore first some major ideas about what does being a subject / being somebody mean, and then move on to explore in detail its obverse: what is “being nobody”? Could “being” nobody actually “be,” and if one “is” if one is nobody? Is “being nobody” not a contradiction in terms (that is, can being and nothingness go together)? While much of the history of subject/ivity is written from within the assumption that we are all embodied knowing subjects, recent discoveries in neurosciences and discussions in philosophy and humanities point to the radical porosity and precariousness at the heart of being a subject or a somebody.

The main theoretical paradigm we are going to pursue is the so-called nemocentrism/nemocentric thesis of Thomas Metzinger, who most clearly articulates the thesis that consciousness and the effectuated subjectivity is produced as a cognitive illusion, and that no such thing as the “self” exists.

Another major focus will be the work of science fiction writer and theorist R. Scott Bakker, who expands a similar thesis through both his novels and theorizing. Along the way, we look at some literary works (by Robert Musil, Thomas Ligotti, Angus McLise), music (David Tibet, Chris Korda), film (The World without Us), and unearth the meanings of “being nobody” as a specific form of existence in the living world. All of this will help students think of the outside world in unconventional and critical ways beyond the limitations of human-centered thinking, equipped with modern-day science-oriented epistemologies.