Table Of Contenti
Embodiment
oxford philosophical concepts
ii
Oxford Philosophical Concepts
Christia Mercer, Columbia University
Series Editor
Published in the Oxford Philosophical Concepts
Efficient Causation Eternity
Edited by Tad Schmaltz Edited by Yitzhak Melamed
Sympathy Self- Knowledge
Edited by Eric Schliesser Edited by Ursula Renz
The Faculties Embodiment
Edited by Dominik Perler Edited by Justin E. H. Smith
Memory Dignity
Edited by Dmitri Nikulin Edited by Remy Debes
Moral Motivation
Edited by Iakovos Vasiliou
Forthcoming in the Oxford Philosophical Concepts
Animals Pleasure
Edited by G. Fay Edwards and Edited by Lisa Shapiro
Peter Adamson
Persons
Evil Edited by Antonia LoLordo
Edited by Andrew Chignell
Space
Health Edited by Andrew Janiak
Edited by Peter Adamson
iii
oxford philosophical concepts
Embodiment
A HISTORY
j
Edited by Justin E. H. Smith
1
iv
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Smith, Justin E. H., editor.
Title: Embodiment / edited by Justin Smith.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2017. |
Series: Oxford philosophical concepts series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016033659 (print) | LCCN 2017006030 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190490454 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780190490447 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780190490478 (online course) | ISBN 9780190490461 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Human body (Philosophy)
Classification: LCC B105.G64 E43 2017 (print) | LCC B105.G64 (ebook) |
DDC 128/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016033659
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Paperback printed by WebCom, Inc., Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
v
This book is dedicated to the memory of Helen
Lang (1947– 2016).
vi
vii
Contents
Series Editor’s Foreword ix
Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Justin E. H. Smith
1 The Body of Western Embodiment: Classical Antiquity and the Early
History of a Problem 17
Brooke Holmes
2 Embodied or Ensouled: Aristotle on the Relation
of Soul and Body 51
Helen Lang
3 Beautiful Bodies and Shameful Embodiment in Plotinus’s Enneads 69
Lesley- Anne Dyer Williams
4 Augustinian Puzzles about Body, Soul, Flesh, and Death 87
Sarah Catherine Byers
5 Medieval Jewish Philosophers and the Human Body 109
Yoav Meyrav
6 Scholastic Philosophers on the Role of the Body in Knowledge 143
Rafael Nájera
viii
viii Contents
7 Hobbes’s Embodied God 171
Geoffrey Gorham
8 Leibniz’s View of Living Beings: Embodied or Nested Individuals 189
Ohad Nachtomy
9 Descartes and Spinoza: Two Approaches to Embodiment 215
Alison Peterman
10 Man- Machines and Embodiment: From Cartesian Physiology to
Claude Bernard’s “Living Machine” 241
Philippe Huneman and Charles T. Wolfe
11 The Embodiment of Virtue: Toward a Cross- Cultural Cognitive
Science 277
Jake H. Davis
Reflections
The Devil in the Flesh: On Witchcraft and Possession 299
Véronique Decaix
Phantom Limbs 307
Stephen Gaukroger
Embodied Geometry in Early Modern Theatre 311
Yelda Nasifoglu
Ghosts in the Celestial Machine: A Reflection on Late Renaissance
Embodiment 317
Jonathan Regier
The Genotype/ Phenotype Distinction 325
Emily Herring
BIBLIOGRAPHY 331
Index 357
ix
Series Editor’s Foreword
Oxford Philosophical Concepts (OPC) offers an innovative approach
to philosophy’s past and its relation to other disciplines. As a series,
it is unique in exploring the transformations of central philosophical
concepts from their ancient sources to their modern use.
OPC has several goals: to make it easier for historians to contextual-
ize key concepts in the history of philosophy, to render that history
accessible to a wide audience, and to enliven contemporary discussions
by displaying the rich and varied sources of philosophical concepts
still in use today. The means to these goals are simple enough: eminent
scholars come together to rethink a central concept in philosophy’s
past. The point of this rethinking is not to offer a broad overview, but
to identify problems the concept was originally supposed to solve and
investigate how approaches to them shifted over time, sometimes radi-
cally. Recent scholarship has made evident the benefits of reexamining
the standard narratives about western philosophy. OPC’s editors look
beyond the canon and explore their concepts over a wide philosophical
landscape. Each volume traces a notion from its inception as a solution
to specific problems through its historical transformations to its mod-
ern use, all the while acknowledging its historical context. Each OPC
volume is a history of its concept in that it tells a story about chang-
ing solutions to its well- defined problem. Many editors have found it
appropriate to include long- ignored writings drawn from the Islamic
