Zagadnienie cielesności człowieka w filozofii Edyty Stein

Abstract

The issue of man’s body belongs to the most important and interesting problems. For this purpose the philosophical legacy left by Edith Stein could be superbly useful because applied by her the phenomenological method gave her an opportunity “to see” the human body not only from the outside, as we usually do when examining a “physical body”, but also gave her an insight into its interior. Subsequently, this method allowed her to better understand it as a special kind of body: “an alive body”. (The Polish language does not have proper, separate words to describe the differences between different types of bodies, so the difference must be described. Thus to pronounce it we have to say a “physical body” and “alive body”, whereas the German language uses respectively “Körper” and “Leib”). The author, apart from the distinction mentioned above, also depicts the difference between the specific body that I call “my body” as opposed to “someone’s else body”. She points out the uniqueness of that body which is described as “my body”, for only this body I may experience in a special way. Whereas each human body is given to me only from outside (in an external experience), to my body I have the cognitive access also from the inside (in an internal experience). This fact has a significant meaning for the process of recognition and understanding of man’s body. The human body is only a part of the ontological structure of man. To understand it fully we have to explain its coexistence with the human soul but this issue goes beyond the frame drown by the title. Edith Stein in her writings gives a full explanation of this topic.