here's a quote from 'i am my body: a theology of embodiment' (mentioned in previous post):
"in the age of enlightenment, human beings understood themselves as rational beings, and defined their bodies from that perspective. the body was something external to them: for descartes another substance, for kant something animal which had to be overcome in the course of civilization, the bestiality which must always be controlled and silenced by the educational programme of the enlightenment. but this defamed body is at the same time an expression of nature. and since the issue today is the integration of the nature of which human beings are a part, it is also the integration of the body. for human beings, the body is the primary way of 'being in the world and the foundation of self-awareness in feeling oneself' (bohme)."
descartes and kant were substantially influential thinkers... isn't it interesting that their perspectives of the body were so alien and beastly?
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