Il corpo nella filosofia: note di riflessione

Abstract

When talking about the body in philosophical thought, two premises must be kept in mind. The first concerns the fact that reflection on this topic has always had to confront dualism in its various forms and the monist outcome of dualism itself, in its materialist or spiritualist versions; the second is that one must always keep in mind the distinction, philosophically focused on by Husserl, between Körper and Leib. Against this background, we can then try to answer the complex question about the role of the body in personal identity, given that the human body is located simultaneously in the domain of things, albeit in the more circumscribed ontological district of animate things –that is, living things–, and in that of subjects. Next, we will try to sketch three theoretical nodes that are important to focus on in the consideration of corporeality where the theologian is engaged in the present time in reasoning about the resurrection: the human body as a sexed body; the body as a criterion for recognizing the presence or absence of a human person; the body reinterpreted in cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence studies. Finally, we will see a particular need for philosophical reason where the death of the body is grasped as a radical assault on one’s identity.