Abstract
What we can learn about Bakhtin's Philosophy of the Body when we consider it as a moving being?
In this essay I shall demonstrate how many of Bakhtin’s concepts resonate with recent research into embodied cognition, which itself is making an important contribution to how we can understand an actor’s work. The ideas discussed in this book are mostly drawn from Bakhtin’s early philosophy where he explores how meaning and value relate to a person’s unique spatial and temporal situation. His theory of morality is based on the non-transferability of our physical situation. We act and answer with our body. Thus for Bakhtin meaning is ineluctably embodied. He rejects a purely theoretical approach – perhaps, a purely ‘cognitive’ approach – arguing that it results in a kind of meaning without meaning. His early philosophy thus touches on contemporary debates about and research into embodied intelligence and meaning.
In this essay I shall demonstrate how many of Bakhtin’s concepts resonate with recent research into embodied cognition, which itself is making an important contribution to how we can understand an actor’s work. The ideas discussed in this book are mostly drawn from Bakhtin’s early philosophy where he explores how meaning and value relate to a person’s unique spatial and temporal situation. His theory of morality is based on the non-transferability of our physical situation. We act and answer with our body. Thus for Bakhtin meaning is ineluctably embodied. He rejects a purely theoretical approach – perhaps, a purely ‘cognitive’ approach – arguing that it results in a kind of meaning without meaning. His early philosophy thus touches on contemporary debates about and research into embodied intelligence and meaning.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Bakhtin's Heritage in Literature, Arts, and Psychology |
| Subtitle of host publication | Arts and Answerability |
| Editors | Slav Gratchev, Howard Mancing |
| Place of Publication | Lanham, Maryland |
| Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
| Chapter | 16 |
| Pages | 237 - 254 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-4985-8270-4 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-4985-8269-8 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2018 |