Intanon Somboontanasarn

This article presents an evaluation of Byung-Chul Han’s critique of neoliberal subjectivation with respect to his general purpose, which is to provoke his readers towards a passionate confrontation with their life and being under neoliberalism and for them to subvert it. Through the application of his Buddhist-inspired fundamental ontology of friendliness, Han delineates an alternative form of life against neoliberalism, over which he develops and grounds a politics of cosmopolitanism. Whilst the article does not object to Han’s use of fundamental ontology, which shall be framed as non-essentialist, it argues that the actualization of the ontological possibility of friendliness, through which Han envisions the subversion of neoliberalism, becomes obstructed when we take ontic conditions into consideration, especially those which pertain to material needs and their satisfaction, whose significance is not fully registered under fundamental ontology alone. The article ends not with a dismissal of Han, but rather a call for a confrontation with these conditions.