Abstract

Some years ago (1995) a fundamental and very extensive monograph dedicated to a very original 18th century philosopher: Marie-François-Pierre Maine de Biran (1766-1824) is published in France. This study (Maine de Biran. La science de l’homme) is curated by François Azouvi, editor of the last and precious complete edition of the works of this great intellectual. Maine de Biran is above all important for his theory of the influence of the body and listening in the constitution of the mind. This is certainly an important topic in the current debate on embodied cognition in which the study of the philosophy of language and the mind of the Enlightenment is very useful. Today we are in the time of myth – certainly dystopian and oxymoronic – of digital life. It is essential to remember that bodies concern language and intelligence much more than algorithms. This paper aims to show the contribution of Maine de Biran’s philosophy of the body to the increasingly strategic question of the mind-body relationship.