Radical Somatics

In this chapter, the author discusses the radical transformative power of somatics and the ways that somatics practice directly affects the precognitive sensibility of the Other; he calls this transformation of the Other “somatics affecting.” Drawing on his current research that integrates approaches to medicine and somatics in the emergent field of neuroethics, the author explains how somatics, especially through kinesthesia, provides a means of bridging the distinct realms of phenomenology and neuroscience. To this end, he analyzes the transformative qualities of somatics in terms of neurobiology and phenomenology, and especially the radical idea adapted from the phenomenological writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Emmanuel Levinas. He elucidates the relation between somatics and phenomenonology as disciplines of subjectivity by linking them to the natural sciences. Finally, he illustrates the transformative potential of somatics affecting through a comparison with the social neuroscience understanding of empathy.