Leon Krings - Kata 型 and Katachi 形: Towards an Embodied Phenomenology
Channel: European Network of Japanese Philosophy
Date: 2020-05-29

ENOJP4 Hildesheim 2018
Workshop 1: Transforming the Bodymind: Towards a Phenomenology of Ki 気 and Kata 型

Kata 型 and Katachi 形: Towards an Embodied Phenomenology

Leon Krings (Universität Hildesheim)

If we take a broad perspective towards philosophical practice as a self-reflective and critical way of life or Lebensform and take into consideration that the East Asian tradition of philosophy takes an inclusive stance towards practices of embodied self-cultivation, we are compelled to accept a mode of philosophy that is not restricted to an examination of language and categories, but includes practices of embodiment realized in the medium of the body and its gestures. The more we take a closer look at the practices of embodiment that have developed in East Asia (and elsewhere), the more we might feel the necessity to return to an idea that was prevalent in ancient Greece but retreated into oblivion in many strands of modern philosophy, namely that the logos (finding its Japanese equivalents in concepts like 理 ri or 道 dō) is not necessarily limited to language and theoretical thought, but embodied in the material universe as a whole. My presentation takes the practice of kata in the Japanese arts of self-cultivation (michi or dō) as a starting ground to find possibilities for an embodied mode of philosophizing by reflecting on these possibilities using phenomenological methods in connection to the terminology and internal structure of these arts, aiming at a process of reciprocal transformation between phenomenology and self-cultivation that could help to remodel the practice of phenomenology itself and open up the possibility of an embodied pheno-praxis in the medium of habitualized gestures. The focus of the presentation will be on the difference between kata 型 (essential form) and katachi 形 (lived form) as a parallel to the phenomenological distinction between Körper (objectified body) and Leib (lived or enculturated body) and its connection to the possibility of an embodied epoché or phenopractical reduction. My analysis will refer to the phenomenology of perception, especially to the specific characteristics of proprioception and kinaesthetic awareness and their significance for understanding the deepening of self-referentiality in embodied practice.

This talk took place at the forth annual conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy [ENOJP], 5 – 8 September 2018, Universität Hildesheim, Kulturcampus Domäne Marienburg, Germany.

More informations:
http://enojp.org/
http://chisokudopublications.blogspot.com/
https://enojp4.wordpress.com/

Art Direction: Robin Alberding & Jerome Ebeling (CC-BY 3.0)