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Can body be a more interesting idea than soul?

Publication at Faculty of Humanities |
2023

Abstract

The lecture will focus on the assumptions of the aforementioned question raised by Nietzsche. They are not at all trivial, for he does not speak of the immediate givenness of the body, but conceives of it as a hypothesis.

One could almost say that something analogous to what applies to the soul applies to the body, namely that thinking about the soul shapes the way we subsequently care for the soul. But the care of the soul also shapes (in a negative way) the care of the body.

Nietzsche thus raises the question of how, in a time of increasing naturalism and doubt about all things spiritual, thinking about the corporeal might also make the idea of the soul interesting again. Thus, as much as Nietzsche's opening question seems to side with the body, it also carries with it the possibility of a deeper transformation of the soul.

The lectue is followed by a workshop led by J. Chavalka and T.

Chavalková Badurová.