Reinstating the body in Western philosophical and artistic practices

Abstract

Recent academic writing emphasises the importance of the body in human meaning and understanding but, surprisingly, a high percentage of researchers turn a blind eye to the fact that the Western philosophical aesthetic tradition played a leading role in this regard. This article aims to contribute to the reinstatement of the body to its rightful place in historic Western philosophy and art practice. The article thus analyses how the Western aesthetic and artistic tradition started out by attempting to conceptualise and actualise a humanist body in art, but ended up deconstructing such a notion and setting up a metaphorical aesthetic body in its place. In my estimation such a metaphorical perspective of the body in art is not only an emancipatory achievement, but also a joyous affirmation of the human capacity for never-ending creativity.