Somatic Desire: Recovering Corporeality in Contemporary Thought

The essays in this volume all ask what it means for human beings to be embodied as desiring creatures―and perhaps still more piercingly, what it means for a philosopher to be embodied. In taking up this challenge via phenomenology, psychoanalysis, hermeneutics, and the philosophy of literature, the volume questions the orthodoxies not only of Western metaphysics but even of the phenomenological tradition itself. We miss much that has philosophical import when we exclude the somatic aspects of human life, and it is therefore the philosopher’s duty now to rediscover the meaning inherent in desire, emotion, and passion―without letting the biases of any tradition determine in advance the meaning that reveals itself in embodied desire. Continental philosophers have already done much to challenge binary oppositions, and this volume sets out a new challenge: we must now also question the dichotomy between being at home and being alienated. Alterity is not simply something out there, separate from myself; rather, it penetrates me through and through, even in my corporeal experience. My body is both my own and other; I am other than myself and therefore other than my body. Additionally, this book is a conversation, not a presentation of a new orthodoxy. Thus, the hope is that these essays will open the way for further dialogue that will continue to radically rethink our understanding of embodied desire. Gathered together here are twelve essays that address these issues from deeply interrelated albeit unique perspectives from within the field.

Richard Kearney holds the Charles Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College. He is author of numerous books including Wake of the Imagination, On Stories and most recently Touch: Recovering our Most Vital Sense (2021).

Gonçalo Marcelo is Lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Sarah Horton is Part-Time Faculty in Philosophy at Youngstown State University, USA.

Emmanuel Falque is Professor of Philosophy and Honorary Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Paris, France. He has published widely in phenomenology, philosophy of religion and medieval philosophy. His most recent publications include By Way of Obstacles (2022), Nothing to It (2020), The Guide to Gethsemane (2019) and The Loving Struggle (2018). Falque is also the founder of the rapidly growing International Network of Philosophy of Religion.

Miguel de Beistegui is ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain, and Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick, UK. His recent titles include Lacan: A Genealogy (Bloomsbury, 2022), Thought under Threat: On Spite, Stupidity, and Superstition (2021), and The Government of Desire: A Genealogy of the Liberal Subject (2018).