Introduction

Abstract

From the dawn of written records comes one of the most pervading definitions of Man, as zoon logon echon or animal rationale. Older even than the writings of Aristotle, to whom the concept is often attributed, this definition’s origins takes us into the 6th century B.C. (Grawe and Hügli, 1980). It is this idea of Man (we will not be talking Woman for another two millennia) as the only organism capable of thinking and talking that shapes European anthropology and culture. It is the core conviction that propels Rationalism, the Enlightenment and Idealism at the beginning of modernity. In the Middle Ages it moves Man into the proximity of God and the angels, both entities that are more rational and thus even more perfect. The one thing that holds Man back in comparison with them, that mars his perfection and gives him an animal character, is his body. In the trinity of soul, reason and body, the latter constitutes the ‘dark side’ and imperfection; a contrast that becomes even starker when the trinity is reduced to the duality of mind and body.