Ways in, Ways Out: Theorizing the Kantian Body

Abstract

A self-confessed hypochondriac, Immanuel Kant was prolific on the topic of his own corporeality, diligently recording the details of his ‘ Di‰tetik’–a physical regimen intended to ensure long life. The ‘ Di‰tetik’ reveals a Kantian body in which the orifices–the ways in and out of the body–are problematized, and exchange with the world of objects via these orifices is strictly regulated. The Kantian body is a ‘classic’ body in Bakhtinian terms; its ‘grotesque’ counterpart–the feminine body–is explored in a range of Enlightenment and Romantic texts–philosophical, medical, sociological. The Enlightenment is a turning point in the history of gender difference, when the naturalness of incommensurable sexual difference is asserted. The Kantian body is part of this project. The motif of bodily fluids, and their transgression of corporeal boundaries, is considered within the context of an emerging consumer economy, and the changes being wrought on the ‘body politic’.

Spitting images: remaking saliva as a promissory substance

“…We might begin by contrasting the idea that saliva is a waste product to Heather Merle Benbow's (2003) discussion of Immanuel Kant's concern with saliva as a vital fluid: that the responsible individual concerned with maintaining their good health would wish to preserve as much of it as possible within their bodies. Spitting, for example, would "waste" saliva and so diminish the "finite sum of life force" of the individual, but also open the person up to "external invasion".…”

“…No longer considered a "waste" product, saliva re-emerges as a fragile bodily substance that needs protection. Yet, within this new "economy of fluids" (Benbow 2003), protection shifts from bodily control to biochemical control with the development of the stabilising buffer solutions, through which the biomaterial transforms into a high-quality, bio-technical substance open to further manipulation. In its new chemical composition, saliva is thus said to promise "high integrity" DNA as the chemical reagents are said to ensure a stabilised saliva sample that "is truly representative of the in vivo state of the donor [therefore] allowing you to have complete confidence in the accuracy of your discoveries", as claimed on DNA Genotek's Sample Collection Blog, as of March 11, 2015.…”