Embodiment and Human Reason

This book argues, from multiple perspectives, a philosophy of embodiment that resolves the problem of the Vernunft (reason), through a non-exclusivist, embodied account of being human (of doing numbers, doing ethics, doing logic, doing language, doing knowledge). Our perspective is informed by strands of western philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, movement studies, eastern philosophy (Chinese philosophy), and African philosophy. The uniqueness of this project lies in the way it combines studies in various disciplines to give an embodied account of being human that is faithful to the co-givenness of our embodiment and rationality. We are not all that concerned with evaluating dualism as we are with finding an embodied account of being human (an embodied mind, embodied reason).This kind of embodied account of being human reveals the indispensability of the dimension of the Other in the definition of the Vernunft. Its originality lies partly in its account of human difference and human diversity in a way that allows all of us (human beings that belong together) to get along together.