Starting with the Body Beyond the Body

Abstract

The aim of this article is to focus on the double entanglement of the body as an original medium and as a vehicle of technique. It follows Waldenfels’ long course of investigations devoted to these issues. In particular, the author will try to highlight the strong points of his proposal, attempting to critically extend their range, on the one hand, and problematizing certain assumptions that may become the subject of further investigation, on the other. He will focus above all on the question of the bodily self as embedded in and structured by many gestures and practices that are properly technical. Finally, the author will show how the conceptual tools of this phenomenology can be employed in the analysis of some significant contemporary phenomena.