Customer Reviews

The Embodied Self: Friedrich Schleiermacher's Solution to Kant's Problem of the Empirical Self (Suny Series in Philosophy)

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The author's goal is "to affirm unity rather than fragmentation, community rather than disruption, compass rather than aggression as the sacred site of our humanity." She sees the Protestant world standing "on the brink of a shift in consciousness that would rencer most of its (current) thinking unfounded." With her book she would "push us over the brink of the precipice, hoping that this movement beyond the confines of our flawed notions of God, self and the world will release us to a more inclusive...affirmation ...of life." Her method is to review from Kant forward how the concepts of God, self and world have been stated, debated and restated. With this recapitulation as a launching pad, she proposes a synthesis for the present era. She uses some previously unavailable materials and shows amazing familiarity with the well known writings of the 19th century German Idealists. Her intellect is awesome. At the end she paraphrases Schleiermacher who in his book "On Religion" says, ..."Our body lies in the bosom of the infinite world and every sinew and muscle of our body feels infinite life as its own." It is here, she says, that we discover life--all of it--because we are life; we embody it and it embodies us. If this concluding metaphor sounds to you like words about words about words, read "The Embodied Self" while asking yourself the question "What on earth does this mean to me?" Thandeka believes there are some down to earth implications once the distinctions and gaps in the European thought,from which so much American pulpit talk is derived, are identified and clarified. Thandeka makes pattern and path through a spectrum of philosophy that didn't make sense to me when I was in college in the nineteen forties. In her 120 pages of straightforward writing present college and graduate students will, I believe, find a dependable road map through some pretty confusing territory. Ministers who are still growing intellectually may applaud her brinksmanship. Students of the history of psychology will see where "The Embodied Self" brushes against their field. To the author's credit she does not turn aside from her stated goal, although it would be fun to see what she would say about her topic if she approached it from the history of the mind/body and subjective/objectives in psychology. /s/ Dan Johnson, PhD Stanford, 1959

Please correct typos in my review of Thandeka's book,The Embodied Self. In line two"compass" should read "compassion". In line four "rencer" should read "render". The last words in the review should read "...subjective/objective issues in psychology." Thanx. Dan Johnson