Why do people think emotions exist outside the body? Let's say we feel an emotion, "strong will" for example, a structured pose of concentrated inner strength. But when we think about the experience, we don't think of it in terms of flesh, but as an abstraction. We turn it into a word-concept then create culture around it so that everyone might believe that "will" is actually an abstraction. It's a game we play, turning feelings of flesh into spoken words and visualized abstractions. Once "will" becomes a concept, it's up for grabs to bend it and stretch it out of proportion to culturally enforce this warped concept of "will" on ourselves. The effect is inner strain, tension, to push the core beyond what the flesh muscles are capable of sustaining. And with this forced inner posturing, we are hardened into the pose and have no choice but to imagine thoughts that spring from strain. Why do we do this? Because the game of turning flesh experiences into conceptual entities teases us with eternity, tempts us to imagine an authority outside ourselves to comfort inner fears, but we must remember, that fear is of the flesh too. We are bodies. Bodies feel. Bodies move through emotional states to self-maintain, to grow, to interact with each other and nature. It is within body that we create "will" and other emotions, and from the flesh, we will learn about ourselves.

Emotions: Abstractions Or Flesh?

This is an introduction to the conceptualization of mind as a process of body, explained within the framework of body philosophy.

Mind Part 1

I am a body philosopher and an operatically trained singer. As a body philosopher, I focus on the core muscles--muscles of the torso, neck, and head--as the landscape for exploring philosophical questions.

Madeline McNeill

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