The phenomenology of clumsiness
pp. 161-182
in: Katherine J. Morris (ed), Sartre on the body, Berlin, Springer, 2010Abstract
I want here to investigate the phenomenology of clumsiness:1 to explore a way of being embodied that to my knowledge has really only been touched on in passing by philosophers.2 I focus primarily on the phenomenology of the clumsy body in its various dimensions, although all aspects of being in the world are involved in clumsiness and indeed are implicit in descriptions of the clumsy body. Moreover, for reasons that will emerge, this phenomenology is grounded in the experience of the extremely clumsy. This exploration should have an intrinsic interest for those concerned with the phenomenology of the body and will enable a contextualization of those few remarks that have been made. At a deeper level, clumsiness provides a peculiarly good entry into certain philosophical issues surrounding the distinction between "normal' and "abnormal' which is implicit in Sartre's and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological descriptions of the body.
