Attunement Through the Body

by Shigenori Nagatomo

Preparatory to restoring humaneness, Attunement Through the Body offers an innovative, philosophical model for overcoming mind-body dualism and its negative consequences through a systematic elucidation of the concept and the phenomenon of attunement. It invites readers to re-evaluate an undue emphasis placed on the cognitive, intellectual knowledge in the West. The book examines the concept of the lived body and then articulates the transformative dimension of our everyday mode of living our bodies vis-a-vis Yuasa Yasuo's concept of body-scheme, demonstrating that the unity disclosed can be brought to a higher degree. The book further describes the transformative dimension of our bodies in theoretical and practical aspects through the concept of the body emerging in the course of meditational self-cultivation that was practiced by Dogen Kigen, a medieval Japanese Zen master. It then develops an original philosophical theory that differs from various Western theories such as Idealism, Empiricism, and Materialism. This theory articulates modes of attunement reflecting degrees of somatic knowledge. The theory implies a lifestyle appropriate for the coming century.

Genres: Philosophy

334 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1992

Reviews

[Whoof]

basically japanese phenomenology; book also takes the existence of an invisible ki energy as a matter of fact/faith. describes samadhic awareness as a type of "inter-resonance"

responds to Western dualism with both philosophers from the East (Ichikawa, Yasuo, Dogen) and the West (Merleau-Ponty comes up a few times, Husserl)