The Concept of the Body in Heidegger and Zubiri: Comparative Study

Abstract

The goal of this work is to compare the concept of the body in Heidegger and Zubiri. To do this, I will present the idea of the body in both authors. Heidegger did not treat the body unitarily while Zubiri did. This implies reconstructing the concept of the body in Heidegger. I will be starting to periodize his doctrine in three epochs: Being and Time, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, and Zollikon Seminars. I relate these epochs to three concepts: body (Leib), organism (Organismus), and soma (Soma). For Heidegger, the body in the conceptual framework of an existential spatialization is a codetermined body founded on the being-in-the-world of Dasein. In the case of Zubiri, it is enough to expose the most important concepts about the body. That is, constructiveness and the psycho-organic. Constructiveness implies developing the idea of reality and substantivity, but the psycho-organic is Zubiri’s starting point to think about the body. The psycho-organic possesses a moment of embodiment, in which the somatic function unfolds as present actuality. Once the presentation of both authors is done, I will make a conclusion and a comparison between both proposals in which I will highlight their similarities and differences. I will conclude with a critical evaluation, in which I will argue the greatest success of Zubiri’s proposal, as well as the elements regarding the body that both authors omitted.