Punctual selves, punctual death and the health-conscious cogito

Descartes' dead bodies

Bibliographic Data

ID2159593
AuthorsThomas F Tierney (College of Wooster, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume41
Issue2
Pages258-281
Publication date2012-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085147.2011.635436
OpenAlexW1973098755
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

This paper reflects critically on the late-modern obsession with health by presenting Descartes as an almost ideal type of the health-conscious subject. Descartes' life, works and death are interpreted from the unlikely combination of the theoretical perspectives of Charles Taylor and Jean Baudrillard. Despite significant differences, both of these theorists rely heavily on Weber's concept of disenchantment, and each develops a 'punctual' concept in their analysis of modernity. Specifically, the paper combines Taylor's 'punctual self', which can remake itself at will, with Baudrillard's 'punctual death', which presents death as a meaningless terminus. Viewing Descartes through these punctual concepts, it becomes clear that the extensive anatomical investigations he conducted throughout his career shaped his uniquely modern stance towards death and health. However, Descartes maintained an ambivalent relationship with traditional conceptions of death and health, which prevented him from fully embracing modern health-consciousness. The paper concludes with a reconsideration of Descartes' 'premature' death, which invites critical reflection on the role that the predictable behaviour of health-conscious subjects plays in the ever-expanding biomedical order. Keywords: Jean BaudrillarddeathRené DescartesanatomyhealthCharles TaylorMax Weberdissection Acknowledgements I am grateful to the College of Wooster for a research leave that provided the time to finish this paper, and the Centre for Biomedicine and Society at King's College, which provided a very productive environment in which to complete this work. I would also like to thank the three anonymous referees from Economy and Society, as well as the editor, for their helpful comments and suggestions. Support for this project was provided by a New Directions Grant from the Great Lakes Colleges Association. Notes 1. Baudrillard does not discuss these three philosophers in any detail in Symbolic exchange; the identification of them as proponents of the punctual conception of death is my interpretation of Baudrillard's work. 2. In personal correspondence Watson acknowledged that the most that can confidently be said is that Descartes witnessed human dissections while living in Holland. 3. Here Descartes followed Gaspar Bauhin, who used 'H' to label the pineal gland in Theatrum anatomicum (1592) (Bitbol-Hesperies, 2000 Bitbol-Hesperies, A. 2000. "Cartesian physiology". In Descartes' natural philosophy, Edited by: Gaukroger, S., Schuster, J. and Sutton, J. 349–82. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar], p. 358). 4. The Excerpta anatomica is a collection of nearly 100 pages of Descartes' anatomical observations, dating from 1631–48, which were copied by Leibniz and discovered in his library after his death (Descartes, 1909 Descartes , R. 1909 . Oeuvres de Descartes C. Adam & P. Tannery . Paris : Leopold Cerf . [Google Scholar], pp. xi, 545–634). 5. This story was recounted in a 1658 letter from Samuel Sorbiere to Pierre Gassendi, and is quoted in Rodis-Lewis 1998 Rodis-Lewis , G. 1998 . Descartes: His life and thought J. M. Todd, Trans . Ithaca , NY : Cornell University Press . [Google Scholar], p. 158; also see Descartes, 1909 Descartes , R. 1909 . Oeuvres de Descartes C. Adam & P. Tannery . Paris : Leopold Cerf . [Google Scholar], pp. iii, 353; Baillet, 1691 Baillet , A. 1691 . La Vie de Monsieur Des-Cartes . Paris : D. Horthemels . [Google Scholar], p. 273, 1693, p. 214; Gaukroger, 1995 Gaukroger, S. 1995. Descartes: An intellectual biography, London: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar], p. 270. Additional informationNotes on contributorsThomas F. TierneyThomas F. Tierney studied political theory at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. He has taught political and social theory at Illinois Wesleyan University and Concord College, and is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio. He has also served as a National Endowment for the Humanities (US) Visiting Scholar at Otterbein College and as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Biomedicine and Society, King's College, London. He is the author of The value of convenience: A genealogy of technical culture (State University of New York Press, 1993), as well as numerous articles in Body & Society, Theory & Event, Philosophy and Social Criticism, the Journal of Classical Sociology and other journals. His research interests lie with the social and ethical disruptions surrounding advanced biomedical techniques, as well as the biopolitical order that is developing around those techniques

Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Cogito ergo sum · Consciousness · Disenchantment · Epistemology · Late modernity · Modernity · Psychoanalysis · Social science · Sociology · History of Medicine Studies · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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