Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20269152
The Strangeness of the Body and the Foreign Body: Bernhard Waldenfels and Jean-Luc Nancy
Mladen Matić
orcid.org/0009-0004-8166-8092
; Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad
Abstract
In this paper the author analyzes the transformation of the concept of the body in contemporary French and German philosophy, focusing on the concepts of the foreign in Bernhard Waldenfels and Jean-Luc Nancy. In the first part of the paper, through Waldenfels's responsive phenomenology, the body is examined as an emblem of the foreign and the site of primordial affection (pathos). The distinction between the relatively and the radically foreign is analyzed, along with the manner in which the asymmetrical response to the "impact" of the foreign redefines subjectivity. The second part of the paper is devoted to Nancy's ontology of the body as place (lieu) and its "ek-sistence." Particular focus is placed on the concept of areality and the deconstruction of the body in the work L'Intrus, where strangeness appears not merely as an external phenomenon, but as a constitutive element of interiority, as seen in the example of transplantation. The concluding considerations point to the complementarity of these two approaches. On the one hand, Waldenfels emphasizes responsiveness as a response to the foreign, while on the other Nancy shows that existence itself is essentially exposed to strangeness, whereby the subject is constituted as an "intruder" in its own skin. Although differing in their finer points, these two authors may be read together as mutually complementing each other's philosophical horizons.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
348962
URI
Publication date:
1.6.2026.
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