The Ontology of the Flesh, and the Myriad Styles of Being Human

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I am fascinated by what it means to be human.In seeking to demystify the relationship between the body and mind, Philosophy has been dominated by a doctrine of disembodiment that identifies the seat of human existence with a rational soul, or a pure consciousness, a concept that better resembles a ghost than any human-being. While the body refigures in Science as a physical entity amongst other physical entities, its reduction to the causal nexus leaves no descriptive room for the subjective experience of life itself. More promise can be found in the concept of the lived body, which has resurged in recent feminist literature as a psychosomatic unity that phenomenally experiences being in the world. However, the concept remains ontologically limited insofar as it cannot explain the metaphysical wholeness of the psychosomatic unity. And in this way, it fails to displace the dualistic vision of the pure psyche, and separate body, irrevocably breached from each other.I am hoping to fill this metaphysical lacuna by explicating the human-being as a psychosomatic unity that phenomenally experiences being in-and-of the world, thereby building an ontological dimension into the concept of the lived body, all in a way that evades any charge of dualism. Merleau-Ponty's concept of the Flesh - which figures in his later work as the universal fabric of reality that is always both sensible and meaningful - provides a suitable metaphysical framework for this idea: he clarifies the human body as "bodily Flesh", both psychic and somatic in one breath, perfectly and crucially intertwined with the rest of the physical world. While Merleau-Ponty could be criticised for neutralising the cultural specificities of the human body insofar as he stresses the innate anonymity of bodily Flesh, I will emphasise the potential of bodily Flesh to take on different cultural meanings via different styles of being in-and-of the world. To do this, I will illuminate what counts as a style of being by drawing on recent feminist figures such as Iris Marion Young, Judith Butler, and Elizabeth Grosz, thereby priming the concept of bodily Flesh for the principle of intersectionality, which recognises how different cultural meanings coalesce onto a single social subject in a tangle that is always unique to her style of being.Ultimately, then, I will stress the potential of bodily Flesh to take on subversive cultural meanings via subversive styles of being. While the origin of subversion will be traced back to the imagination as a kind of aesthetic inspiration, I shall liken subversion itself to a form of art that forever innovates new styles of being human, in-and-of the world. And in this way, I shall draw attention to our wonderful capacity to push the boundaries of cultural identity, thereby constantly accomplishing our reinvention. Of course, an ethical discussion should follow in order to investigate what morality requires of our constant reinvention: what would make an appropriate style of being human? Where should we set the moral demarcations for personal transformation?So, to summarise my research proposal, I intend to present an ontological theory of the human being that overcomes dualism, all the while emphasising our capacity to push the boundaries of cultural identity, thereby inviting a normative analysis into which boundaries should be pushed, and why. This theory will clarify what it means to be human by tying together the late philosophy of Merleau-Ponty with the ethical and political insights that can be drawn from contemporary feminist literature.