Abstract
Although body-mind monism is the philosophical basis of somaesthetics, it is not readily justifiable within the intellectual history of Western philosophy and aesthetics. Western philosophers such as Ludwig Feuerbach and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, rooted in essentialist thinking, veered between affirming and negating body, thus failing to adhere to body-mind monism. The transcendence of the essentialist predicament was realized through Marx's theory of historical materialism, and a way to justify body-mind monism is thus introduced. From the perspective of Marxist historical materialism, the nature of body-mind relation as a theoretical preposition is translated from the essentialist understanding of a theoretical problem to the existential problem of human. and the body-mind monism is then understood as a historical body-mind unity in time. This understanding, when put into the context of Western intellectual tradition and global cultural background, may not be considered as the only resolution to body-mind monism, but it may justify itself as an approach to the monism within its intellectual tradition.
First Page
200
Last Page
210
Recommended Citation
Fang, Yingmin. 2020. "Somaesthetics and the Justification of Body-Mind Monism: An Account from the Perspective of Marx's Historical Materialism." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 40, (1): pp.200-210. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol40/iss1/16
