How does the body politic reflect the nature of human
embodiment? To pursue this question in a new and productive way,
James Mensch employs a methodology consistent with the fact of our
embodiment; he uses Merleau-Ponty's concept of "intertwining"--the
presence of one's self in the world and of the world in one's
self--to understand the ideas that define political life.
Mensch begins his inquiry by developing a philosophical
anthropology based on this concept. He then applies the results of
his investigation to the relations of power, authority, freedom,
and sovereignty in public life. This involves confronting a line of
interpretation, stretching from Hobbes to Agamben, which sees
violence as both initiating and preserving the social contract. To
contest this interpretation, Mensch argues against its
presupposition, which is to equate freedom with sovereignty over
others. He does so by understanding political freedom in terms of
embodiment--in particular, in terms of the finitude and
interdependence that our embodiment entails. Freedom, conceived in
these terms, is understood as the gift of others. As a function of
our dependence on others, it cannot exist apart from them. To show
how public space and civil society presuppose this interdependence
is the singular accomplishment of "Embodiments." It accomplishes a
phenomenological grounding for a new type of political
philosophy.
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