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

我对人类的意义很着迷。在试图揭开身心关系的神秘面纱的过程中，哲学一直被一种分离的学说所主导，这种学说认为人类存在的根源是理性的灵魂或纯粹的意识，这一概念更像一个幽灵，而不是任何人类。虽然身体在科学中被重新定义为一个物理实体，在其他物理实体中，它被还原为因果关系，没有为生命本身的主观体验留下描述性的空间。更多的希望可以在活的身体的概念中找到，它在最近的女权主义文学中重新兴起，作为一种精神躯体的统一体，在这个世界上体验着惊人的体验。然而，这个概念在本体论上仍然有限，因为它不能解释身心统一的形而上学整体性。这样一来，它就无法取代纯粹的心灵和分离的身体的二元性，它们彼此不可挽回地分离了。我希望通过将人类解释为一种精神躯体的统一体来填补这一形而上学的空白，这种统一体在现象上体验到存在于世界之中，也存在于世界之中，从而在有生命的身体的概念中建立一个本体论的维度，所有这些都以一种避免任何二元论指控的方式。梅洛-庞蒂的肉体概念——在他后来的作品中被认为是现实的普遍结构，总是感性和有意义的——为这一观点提供了一个合适的形而上学框架：他将人体澄清为“肉体的肉体”，既是精神的，也是肉体的，与物质世界的其他部分完美而关键地交织在一起。当梅洛-庞蒂强调肉体固有的匿名性时，他可能会因为中性化人体的文化特殊性而受到批评，而我将强调肉体通过不同的存在于世界和存在于世界的风格而具有不同文化意义的潜力。为了做到这一点，我将通过引用最近的女权主义人物，如Iris Marion Young， Judith Butler和Elizabeth Grosz，来阐明什么是一种存在风格，从而为交叉性原则提供肉体的概念，它认识到不同的文化含义如何在混乱中融合到一个单一的社会主体上，这对于她的存在风格来说总是独一无二的。最后，我将强调肉体通过颠覆性的存在方式具有颠覆性文化意义的潜力。虽然颠覆的起源可以追溯到作为一种审美灵感的想象，但我将把颠覆本身比作一种艺术形式，它永远在世界中创新人类的新风格。通过这种方式，我将提请大家注意我们突破文化认同界限的奇妙能力，从而不断完成我们的再创造。当然，接下来应该进行伦理讨论，以调查道德对我们不断的改造有什么要求：什么样的人才是合适的人？我们应该在哪里为个人转变设定道德界限？因此，总结一下我的研究计划，我打算提出一种克服二元论的人类本体论，同时强调我们突破文化认同边界的能力，从而邀请规范性分析应该突破哪些边界，以及为什么。这一理论将把梅洛-庞蒂的晚期哲学与当代女权主义文学的伦理和政治见解结合起来，阐明人的意义。

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.