Bodily Intimacy and its Neurobiological Foundations
Jesús Conill
Pensamiento. Revista de Investigación e Información Filosófica September 1, 2017 DOI: 10.14422/pen.v72.i273.y2016.002 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Intimidad Cuerpo Subjetividad Experiencia Libertad Persona Nietzsche Ortega y gasset Zubiri. |
| Citations | 5 |
| Key points | Argues that intimacy is best understood through a biological, embodied perspective rather than a functionalist computational one, and that neurobiological findings can support this view without reductionism. |
Abstract
The first part of this study stresses the importance of intimacy for human life and defends the biological standpoint against the functionalist computational stance. This is based on the concept of bodily subjectivity in Nietzsche, bodily, emotional and spiritual intimacy in Ortega y Gasset, and bodily and personal intimacy in Zubiri. The second part sets forth a significant selection taken from studies on the neurobiological foundations of bodily intimacy, reaching beyond sterile reductionisms: its possible neuronal substrate (the neurology of intimacy?), the brain as selectional system, mirror neurons, synaesthesia and neurophenomenology. It ends by putting forward the problem of the power of intimacy, the conflict between this and the reputation.