EMBODIMENT RESOURCES: Definitions
The term 'embodiment' is used in with different emphasis by different writers, so a few definitions may help us clarify our ideas:
"Embodiment -
The bodily aspects of human subjectivity. Embodiment is the central theme
in European phenomenology, with its most extensive treatment in the works
of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Merleau-Ponty’s account of embodiment distinguishes
between the objective body, which is the body regarded as a physiological
entity, and the phenomenal body, which is not just some body, some particular
physiological entity, but my (or your) body as I (or you) experience it.
Of course, it is possible to experience one’s own body as a physiological
entity. But this is not typically the case. Typically, I experience my body
(tacitly) as a unified potential or capacity for doing this and that - typing
this sentence, scratching that itch, etc. Moreover, this sense that I have
of my own motor capacities (expressed, say, as a kind of bodily confidence)
does not depend on an understanding of the physiological processes involved
in performing the action in question.
The distinction between the objective and phenomenal body is central to understanding the phenomenological treatment of embodiment. Embodiment is not a concept that pertains to the body grasped as a physiological entity. Rather it pertains to the phenomenal body and to the role it plays in our object-directed experiences."
The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Second Edition General Editor: Robert Audi. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999
"Embodiment refers to the biological and physical presence of our bodies, which are a necessary precondition for subjectivity, emotion, language, thought and social interaction"
Musical Identities, Macdonald, Hargreaves and Miell. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2002
The expression ‘the body’ has become
problematized and replaced with term ‘embodiment’. This change
"corresponds directly to a shift from viewing the body as a nongendered,
prediscusive phenomenon that plays a central role in perception, cognition,
action and nature to a way of living or inhabiting the world through ones
acculturated body."
(Page xiv)
" If embodiment is an existential condition in which the body is the
subjective source or intersubjective ground of experience, then studies
under the rubric of embodiment are not 'about' the body per se. Instead
they are about culture and experience insofar as these can be understood
from the standpoint of bodily being-in-the-world."
p. 143
Thomas Csordas in Perspectives on Embodiment
by Weiss, G. and Haber, H., (eds.). Routledge; March, 1999.
home | e-list | bibliography