Affection and first philosophy: The relationship between phenomenology and life sciences

Abstract

In this article we support the thesis that the access to the phenomenality of phenomena, including the access to themselves, is only possible in a regime of co-property in life: the life-living affection. We show the implications through a theory of culture, namely the culture of the relations between phenomenology and health sciences. We question the possibility to judge bodies in the phenomenality of affection, and with that, to judge our pain and illnesses. These questions will be assessed from the development of the work started by Michel Henry concerning the foundations of the interdisciplinarity between phenomenality and clinical practice, by associating it to a scientific-philosophical tradition with roots in Francisco Sanchez, almost a contemporary of Descartes, and to proceed with the hesitations and questions that Descartes himself introduced in his own philosophical corpus: the spirit's dependence on the organs' function. And through Descartes, we will bring current scientific researches into debate.