Digestion, as a Theme in Phenomenology

Digestion is a fundamental bodily process that involves breaking down and absorbing external substances such as food or medicine into our bodies. A familiar part of our daily life, it is also a frequent metaphor for taking something in or assimilating it. For instance, when we digest a difficult concept, we make it our own, to be used for our purposes. Contemporary phenomenology’s concern with the lived experience of embodiment has not generated extensive meditation on digestion in its literal sense, despite its importance to our ongoing survival and the fact of its functioning (and ill-functioning) frequently intruding into our conscious awareness. Dwelling with digestion can add to our reflection on phenomenological topics such as the mind-body relation, appearance and disappearance, embodied activity and passivity, vulnerability and mastery, assimilation, our openness to the world, and encounters with otherness. This entry will consider some of the treatment of digestion in three of the phenomenological tradition’s forebears, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche, before proceeding to thematic discussion of how phenomenology does engage, or might engage, with digestion. Digestion also connects with themes such as hunger, eating, embodiment, pain and illness, health, as well as recognition of the other generally, that are beyond the scope of this entry.