[Historical ideas about the body]

Abstract

We find references to the body in both the human and the social sciences. Contemporary culture fragments the body from the soul, and body philosophy makes an effort to unite the two. Modern philosophers are trying to construct bridges where there has been a traditional dualism of body and soul. New concepts are ambiguity, reciprocity and ecology. The article presents ideas on the relationships between body and soul, from Antiquity to post-industrial times; Plato, St. Paul, Descartes, Nietzsche, Foucault, Freud, Merleau-Ponty, Bateson, Bourdieu and Baudrillard. The term psychosomatic dissolves in the light of contemporary body philosophy; because it is based on the classical dualism of psyche-soma.