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

我对人类的意义很着迷。在寻求揭开身体和心灵之间关系的神秘面纱时，哲学一直被一种脱离肉体的学说所支配，这种学说将人类存在的基础与理性的灵魂或纯粹的意识联系起来，这种概念更像是幽灵而不是人类。虽然身体在科学中被重新定义为其他物理实体中的一个物理实体，但它被还原为因果关系，没有给生命本身的主观经验留下描述的空间。在生命体的概念中可以找到更多的希望，在最近的女权主义文学中，它作为一种心身统一体在世界上的现象体验而复活。然而，这个概念在本体论上仍然是有限的，因为它不能解释心身统一的形而上学整体性。这样一来，它就无法取代纯粹心灵和分离身体的二元论观点，我希望通过解释人类作为一个心身统一体来填补这个形而上学的空白，这个心身统一体在现象上体验着在世界中和在世界中的存在，从而在生命体的概念中建立一个本体论的维度，所有这些都避免了二元论的指控。梅洛-庞蒂的肉体概念--在他后来的作品中被描绘成现实的普遍结构，总是既有感觉又有意义--为这一想法提供了一个合适的形而上学框架：他澄清了人体作为“肉体肉体”，精神和肉体在一口气中，完美而关键地与物质世界的其他部分交织在一起。虽然梅洛-庞蒂可能会被批评为中和了人体的文化特性，因为他强调肉体的内在匿名性，但我将强调肉体通过不同的存在方式呈现不同的文化意义的潜力。为了做到这一点，我将通过借鉴最近的女权主义人物，如Iris Marion Young，Judith Butler和Elizabeth Grosz，来阐明什么是存在的风格，从而为交叉性原则启动肉体的概念，该原则认识到不同的文化意义如何在一个纠结中结合到一个单一的社会主体上，这总是她的存在风格所独有的。我将强调肉体的潜力，通过颠覆性的存在方式来承担颠覆性的文化意义。颠覆的起源可以追溯到作为一种美学灵感的想象力，而我将把颠覆本身比作一种艺术形式，它永远创新着人类在世界中和世界中的新风格。通过这种方式，我将提请大家注意，我们有能力突破文化认同的界限，从而不断实现我们的再造。当然，接下来应该进行一场伦理讨论，以研究道德对我们不断改造的要求：什么才是适当的做人方式？我们应该在哪里为个人转变设定道德界限？因此，为了总结我的研究建议，我打算提出一个克服二元论的人类本体论理论，同时强调我们推动文化认同边界的能力，从而邀请规范分析应该推动哪些边界，以及为什么。这一理论将通过将梅洛-庞蒂的晚期哲学与当代女权主义文学中的伦理和政治见解联系起来，阐明人类的意义。

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.