Confucius’ Embodied Knowledge
Asian Studies January 18, 2023 Margus Ott 14 citations
The Analects, a foundational text of Chinese philosophy, contains themes that align closely with modern embodiment theory (ET), including embodiment, embeddedness, enactment, extendedness, emotivity, implicitness, emergence, joy, and apprenticeship or self-cultivation. While recent Sinological research has addressed embodiment, explicit connections to ET have been rare. The article argues that ET offers a useful framework for interpreting key themes in the Analects, and conversely, that engaging with the Chinese philosophical tradition—which has discussed embodiment for over two millennia—could enrich ET's further development.