Response to Body Thinking—

This article speaks a lot to my beliefs in understanding through embodiment. During the Clifford Symposium I heard a talk given by Daniel Dennett, a renowned philosopher on Darwin who spoke of the process of Natural Selection as being ‘competence without comprehension.’ As very analytical beings, this statement seems very counterintuitive, but like the example in the article, Chimpanzees don’t understand the reasons and impulses to get a banana; they simply do. These processes are developed senses of reason that have evolved within our species. But since we are humans, we are to a certain extent able to recognize and develop our skills of proprioception. This development can then lead us to more spacious and fully realized concepts and perceptions of the world around us.
William Wordsworth stated that ‘poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.’ Although Wordsworth is speaking of his own medium of poetry, the statement reveals the universality of all art making in that it begins with an impulse from the gut, from our visceral body, which carries itself through to the medium of the artist. Of course, this is a very Romantic-era style of thought, but one I find rich with possibility.