The Metaphysics of the Body
The Metaphysics of the Body
This chapter moves toward the construction of a metaphysics of the body. It embarks on such a venture rejecting the dualism of physical and metaphysical, materiality and spirituality, nature and culture. What it means by metaphysical with respect to the body is the system of values pertaining to embodiment through which embodiment is viewed, shaped, and performed. These are moral values such as goodness, social values such as justice, aesthetic values such as beauty, and claims to truth or the way things are. There is no materiality as such, then; materiality is always imbricated in conceptual evaluations. That does not mean that there is no difference between matter and thought, only that they cannot be separated in any inquiry into either. As Judith Butler pointed out a number of years ago now, “matter matters”.
Keywords: metaphysics, body, physical, materiality, spirituality, nature, culture, values, embodiment, matter
Fordham Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
