Toward a Social Phenomenology? The Two Sources of Embodiment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4435640 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Guillaume Le Blanc (0009-0004-3901-5717) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 124 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 581-595 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South Atlantic Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-2876 • E-ISSN: 1527-8026 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00382876-11850309 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 3 |
This article critically reexamines Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of embodiment in light of contemporary social and political realities. It questions to what extent a social phenomenology should contribute to rethinking the status of embodiment by forcing us to reflect on the social forms that make certain existences possible or impossible. To this end, it confronts the style of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception with central elements identified by the social sciences, but also social philosophy. In a certain sense, does the exposure of lives to norms, the development of social inequalities, the identification of class, gender, and racial violence not deprive the body of its capacity to open itself to the world? What gives the body such power if it is placed in a position of powerlessness? This article shows that there are two sources of embodiment: a vital source and a social source. In this vein, it questions the presupposition of an originary state of flesh and body and reflects on the meaning of absence as a primordial dimension of a body that is always a social body and never merely a living body
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |