Sense experience and differentiation : Husserl on bodily awareness

Abstract

This article outlines the basic ingredients of Husserl’s theory of bodily awareness. It first analyses the concepts of hyletic and kinesthetic sensibility, and illustrates the interwovenness and equiprimordiality of Me and not-Me in Husserl’s account. Second, it shows how the concept of the lived body emerges from this complex sensible foundation. Thirdly, it argues that, as the area of intersection between the Me and the not-Me, bodily awareness is the initial locus of differentiation between Me and not-Me: an area where the experiential distinction between the Me and the not-Me is constantly negotiated.