Cécile Hellian
CESSP – EHESS (cecile.hellian@gmail.com; ORCID : 0009-0004-2021-6375).
The Incorporation of Discourse in Bourdieu’s Work: Towards a Spinozist Interpretation
Abstract: It’s rare that bodies succeed to change after a decision formulated in language. Others’ prescriptions about our actions often fail to product an effect up to our expectations. Regularly, Pierre Bourdieu notes this failure of the body’s modification through words. He also criticizes for example Sartre, some Marxists or feminists who fail to change their practices deeply, for not taking into account the impotence of discourses. Being awareness of a problem doesn’t allow to change radically practices. If mind resist against the symbolic order, bodies resist against the mind to bring about a real transformation for Bourdieu. But he never addresses this resistance head-on because this object of study is only peripheral for him. He also conserves a duality between body and mind. The problem of the body’s modification through speech can, however, be reconfigured thanks to a theory based on the unity of body and mind. Starting from this unity conceived by Spinoza, the problem appears more complex. A typology of cases of body resistance to discourse can then be outlined. From these cases, the modification of body and mind is then conceivable.
Keywords: Modification; Changement; Body; Mind; Language.