Document Type : پژوهشی
Authors
1
PhD, Philosophy of Education, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2
Associate Professor, Department of Foundations of Education, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
3
Professor of the Department of Foundations of Education, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
4
Associate Professor, Department Foundations of Education, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
10.22067/fedu.2025.86666.1326
Abstract
this research with the aim of revealing the invisible aspect of positive thinking discourse, has investigated the construction process of the subject of positive thinking through an analytical-interrogative-critical method. The results of the research show that at first man was defined as homo oeconomicus and the society was divided into two categories of workers and capitalists. In order to prevent the reduction of worker's productivity with minimum wage and maximum work, the Self- Entrepreneur subject was constructed. This subject is a worker and a capitalist at the same time; Since the possibility of entrepreneurship is not available for all people, the discourse of positive thinking began to construct a happiness maker subject; A subject with a consumer economic enterprise to produce her satisfaction and of course this discourse to prevent depression caused by not having enough money to spend in a consumer economic enterprise. first, introduced happiness as an emotional currency and a factor in creating wealth and success and after that, in order to make the Self- Entrepreneur subject visible in neoliberal bio-politics, he introduced well-being with specific factors as the criteria of a successful and wealth-creating person. And finally, the subject who seeks to produce her own satisfaction and defines well-being as satisfaction with life, having achievements, Engagement, etc. It is in contrast with a person who, from the point of view of altruism, considers himself committed and responsible for the satisfaction of another, and considers well-being to be the totality of empathy and sympathy towards another in order to reduce his pain and suffering.
Keywords: well-being, happiness, Self- Entrepreneur, happiness maker subject, positive thinking of neoliberal, ethics
Synopsis
The main problem in the present era is the ignorance of the process of human beings becoming subjects through discourses and their hidden education. Discourses that are inspired by the relationship with power and therefore act as regimes of truth that indirectly educate the individual's mentality and determine his actions. In the present era, the discourse that manages and guides populations in the larger biopolitical context based on the rationality of its political economy is the neoliberal discourse. Neoliberalism, through technologies, the most important of which are psychological sciences, creates specific mentalities and, through these mentalities or, in other words, subjectivations, attempts to guide the behavior of individuals. This discourse, by embedding individual freedom within the scope of its political economy rationality, defines the individual’s relationship with himself and others in the form of a kind of investment and encourages people to view their lives and identities as economic enterprises.
Since the discourse of positive thinking, whether in the form of academic positive psychology or in the form of pop psychology, serves neoliberalism as a discursive technology, and since Foucault has criticized neoliberalism in his Genealogy of the Modern State; This article aims to portray the invisible side of this discourse by depicting the way in which the subject of positive thinking is constructed in neoliberal biopolitics; Because everyone has accepted this discourse as a given and many studies, regardless of the context in which this discourse emerged, have introduced it as aligned with Islamic teachings. This self-evident view and alignment of Islamic teachings with the teachings of this discourse has led many people to imagine that the cause of many of their problems is that they do not have sufficient ability to think positively or that they do not have sufficient awareness of the teachings of this discourse; As a result, it is necessary to follow the teachings of this discourse to achieve their desires.
The innovative aspect of this research is that, by looking at the way the positive thinking subject is constructed, it portrays the invisible aspect of this discourse, which is related to power, and in this way, it prevents people from being psychologically confused by the teachings of positive thinking and not getting results, as well as from the depression resulting from lagging behind the group of positive thinkers.
In addition, the critique of the moral orientation of this subject helps those who attach special importance to morality and, on the other hand, have the idea of the correspondence of positive thinking with morality to determine their position on this discourse with certainty.
Achieving certainty and certainty about a subject is the most important factor in achieving peace as an individual desire. Since individual desires such as hope, peace, satisfaction, etc. determine the main quality of life, and these individual desires are not simply the product of social desires such as wealth, power, academic knowledge, etc., it can be said that a correct understanding of how to construct a positive thinking subject and its level of morality can help the audience in the midst of the current propaganda onslaught to make the right decision and not be affected by the current atmosphere, on the way to achieving their goals, accept suffering with high individual desires, and by connecting to other knowledge such as Quranic teachings or ancient Iranian literature, transform their pain into happiness, pleasure, and success.
Conclusion
The achievements of this article can be expressed under three general headings: the construction of the neoliberal positive subject, the reasons for the development of the concept of happiness from the perspective of neoliberal biopolitics, and the critique of the moral orientation of this subject. First, man is defined as an economic man, and then the subject of the “Self- Entrepreneur” was born from the heart of American neoliberalism; a subject that resolved the contradiction between the worker and the capitalist in Marx’s economic system. In order to create a balance of power and wealth in favor of the labor force and increase the worker’s motivation for more production, the capitalist system created the autonomous entrepreneur by dividing the worker into a present and a future existence. This subject is the producer and consumer of his own satisfaction; that is, the worker today produces and consumes for a better version of himself in the future.
The happiness-maker subject, whose task is to recognize inner happiness and use it to generate wealth and health, and ultimately to create more happiness capital. In fact, he consumes and produces happiness, and there is no longer any point of resistance or moment of exhaustion in the present moment.
In the section of the critique of the moral orientation of the positive-thinking subject, it can be said that the happiness-creating subject, in order to produce its own satisfaction, ignores morality in the sense of commitment and responsibility for the satisfaction of others, and since it strives to achieve subjective well-being, it is in opposition to moral well-being with the concept of compassion, which is the sum of empathy and sympathy.
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