Body, Soul and Society. Rethinking Media and Communication Ontologies

It is a common discernment that modern Western societies entail a problematic division between the conceptual realms of “body” and “soul”, and that the ideal of rational thinking and progress (the mind) has come to dominate both. It is also a commonplace argument that Western modernity – in its disciplination, individualization and commodification of body (and soul) – differs sharply from both traditional societies and Eastern philosophies. A brief look at the past few centuries of Western thinking, however, reveals obvious fields of tension within the various veins of Western social theory and their conceptions of modernity. Efforts towards understanding modernity were always accompanied by inquisitions into the forces of rationality and discipline, on the one hand, and enchantment and hedonism, on the other. Earlier social theorists conceived differently of the individual and society, and the social versus spiritual realms against the backdrop of modernity, producing competing visions. Where Marx saw a capitalist society and grounds for revolution, Durkheim (following Comte) saw an industrial society and the need for evolution, and Weber a paradox of rationalism that deeply marked modernity, which ultimately produced a disenchanted culture. Questions of body and soul, in all their articulations, have been crucial to both social scientific and humanistic analysis, and continue to be integral to numerous current debates – not least in media and communication studies – and to normative visions of what constitutes the “good life” and “good society”.