Even if the human condition is corporeal, the definition of the notion of “body” is by no means self-evident and many societies do not even define it. Bodies are not taken into consideration, only men, women or children. The study of anatomy and the mechanistic philosophy of Descartes for example were two key moments in this invention of the notion of “body”, a body detached from the person embodying it, a body specific to a given species. The conference will moreover explain how the contemporary notion of the body is connected to the gradual development of the idea of the individual in our society, starting from the Renaissance.
In collaboration with the Accademia di Francia (Academy of France) in Rome – Villa Medici.