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Title: The Body for Beginners (For Beginners) by Dani Cavallaro, Carline Vago, Daniel Cavallaro ISBN: 0-86316-266-5 Publisher: Writers & Readers Pub. Date: March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: Fun Introduction to an Important Theoretical Issue
Comment: The question of the body and embodiment has become a central issue in 20th century philosophy, and will doubtless continue to occupy thinkers in the years to come. From the phenomenological school (Merleau-Ponty) to current issues in cognitive science (Lakoff and Johnson's Philosophy in the Flesh), we are wrestling with the question: what does it mean for us to be embodied, and how must this affect our view of reality and what we can say about reality and ourselves?

Since Descartes, Western thought has struggled under the illusion that the mind can be separated from the body: that the two exist somehow in different and distinct spheres: one involving pure reason, the other involving corporeality, flesh, embodiment. But increasingly we are realizing that our embodiment affects our thought, and to think about 'pure reason' is often a distorting abstraction. An increasing awareness of Eastern thought - which does not make this body/mind distinction - broadens our (those of us in the West) thinking and forces us to question long-held assumptions. This is being increasingly realized in the fields of sociology, psychology, cognitive science, philosophy and anthropology.

All this is dealt with in a funny and easy to read way in Cavallaro's book. It is a subject that too few people know about, yet it affects everything we do: from philosophy, to art, to society. For those who then want something meatier, I suggest the above works: Maurice Merleau-Ponty's "Phenomenology of Perception", Lakoff and Johnson's "Philosophy in the Flesh", the journal "Body and Society" and the book by the same name edited by Bryan Turner and Mike Featherstone.