Ian Burkitt 
Bodies of Thought 
Embodiment, Identity and Modernity

In this incisive and truly impressive book, Ian Burkitt critically addresses the dualism between mind and body, thought and emotion, rationality and irrationality, and the mental and the material, which haunt the post-Cartesian world.

Drawing on the work of contemporary social theorists and feminist writers, he argues that thought and the sense of being a person is inseparable from bodily practices within social relations, even though such active experience may be abstracted and expanded upon through the use of symbols. Overcoming classic dualisms in social thought, Burkitt argues that bodies are not purely the constructs of discourses of power: they are also productive, communicative, and invested with powerful capacities for changing the social and natural worlds. He goes on to consider how such powers can be developed in more ethical forms of relations and activities.

Table of Content

Introduction

Prolegomenon to Bodies of Thought

The Ecology of Bodies of Thought

The Body as Object

From the Grotesque to the Closed Body

The Thinking Body

Feminism and the Challenge to Dualism

Social Relations, Embodiment and Emotions

Modernity, Self and Embodiment

Conclusion

Relations and the Embodied Person

About the author

Ian Burkitt is in the Department of Social and Economic Studies, University of Bradford