living body, n.Definitions

The Living body (n.) swings ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠between taking in, where passivity limits it, and reacting, where it tends to lose itself in the object.

Living body (n.) can ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠only be understood by enacting it: I grasp what it does the way my hand circles an object, already tracing the shape it is about to feel.

The Living body (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠no mere relay of movement or information: it eats, ages and mates, integrating and differentiating as it goes.

A Living body (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the one body never absent from my perceptual field — the organ through which I hold sway; and in perception it is only ever my own: another's is perceived only as a physical body.

A Living body (n.) of ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠low type is near to a democracy of occasions; in higher bodies the brain lets now one part, now another, enjoy a richness of inheritance that becomes the presiding personality of the moment.