{"id":709,"date":"2024-06-26T04:25:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T04:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2024\/06\/26\/four-attitudes-toward-embodiment\/"},"modified":"2024-06-26T04:25:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T04:25:04","slug":"four-attitudes-toward-embodiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2024\/06\/26\/four-attitudes-toward-embodiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Attitudes Toward Embodiment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Am I ineluctably trapped in a dying animal? Is embodiment an axiologically negative state of affairs or is it an axiologically positive one?  Here are four possible attitudes toward having a material body. They may be loosely associated, respectively, with the names Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Benatar.<\/span><\/p>\n

a) To exist is good<\/em>, but it would be better to exist without a gross material body subject to decay and dissolution. The body is an impediment, a vehicle for sublunary roads that it would be better not to have to travel.  I am neither identical to my body, nor dependent on it for my existence; I am a soul temporarily incarcerated in a body from which I will be released upon death. I have fallen from a topos ouranios<\/em> into a spatiotemporal matrix and meat grinder<\/a> extrication from which is both possible and desirable.<\/span><\/p>\n

b) To exist is good<\/em>, but a gross material body is necessary to exist as a conscious and self-conscious being, whence it follows that embodiment is at least instrumentally  good. I am not (identically) a soul; I am a soul-body composite, both components of which are necessary to exist at all.  <\/span><\/p>\n

c) To exist is good<\/em>, but only with a 'resurrected' and perfected body supplied by a divine being that needs no body to exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

d) To exist is not good<\/em> because possible only with a gross body.  (See my Benatar<\/a> category.)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Am I ineluctably trapped in a dying animal? Is embodiment an axiologically negative state of affairs or is it an axiologically positive one?  Here are four possible attitudes toward having a material body. They may be loosely associated, respectively, with the names Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Benatar. a) To exist is good, but it would be … Continue reading “Four Attitudes Toward Embodiment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-predicament","category-soul-and-body"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}