In Body
In Body
The very fact that human beings share a space, in which their bodies, as physical masses, cannot occupy the same place, raises the need for political existence. This is because bodily existence is directly tied to the emergence of relations of power. Bodily existence makes human beings not only subjects of power, but also objects of power. This fact necessitates a civilization, i.e., a second birth of human beings. These connections are best seen when we compare the human situation to that of angels. It is because human beings, unlike angels, have an (empirical) body, that they require a political order. Such a political order is thus to be contrasted both with a-historical paradisiacal conditions, as well as with the para-empirical notion of a “natural man,” as Ibn Khaldûn has shown through his distinction between a “hypothetically” and an “empirically” proceeding political science.
Keywords: body-politics, Angelic vs. human existence, historical vs. paradisiacal times, golden age, Anthropogonic logic
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