Towards a social ontology of the body in Butler: analysis and limits

Abstract

This article analyzes the historical survival of Platonic soul-body dualism and the historical moment in which it was overcome, allowing the analysis of the concept of the body without its opposition with the soul or mind. Michel Foucault and the feminist theories of the twentieth century who made the criticism of a subject without "flesh", disembodied, managed to change the perspective of the body. Between feminist theories that have tried the body, I have chosen the work of J. Butler who, in my opinion, surpasses other conceptions such as the thought of D. Haraway and R. Braidotti on this issue. This author, not without questionable elements, has developed throughout his work a theory she calls "a social ontology of the body". However, the element that I find most problematic in Butler is the high degree of abstraction of their proposals and the unfortunate criticism of the concept of patriarchy. So, I put it as opposed to other approaches, such as the ideas of Mohanty and Eisenstein, and particularly the ideas of C. Amorós, that seem to me closer to the needs of feminism in the age of globalization.