The Space-Time of the Living

What unites our body with our soul is of three natures: the breath, desire and the flesh. Through the hospitality given to the desire for/of the other, our soul receives an extent—and even a material, Hegel would say. Opened by acknowledging the otherness of the other, it becomes also fleshly thanks to the physical dimension of desire, that is, thanks to the desire for/of the other as incarnate. The soul becomes a sensitive expanse or material in which the other, and even the world, can take place as external to it. They are intimately perceived as living with some of their physical qualities—which permits a union of the soul with the body, in oneself and between the selves. Our tradition little wondered about the nature of this union and its effects. It thought of these elements as separate or composing a whole in which their specificity disappeared, but not as being able to unite with one another and act jointly. This perspective allows us to change our way of imagining the relation between matter and spirit, nature and divinity, and even unity and difference. Indeed, the desire between two humans who differ by nature allows us to overcome such dichotomies. And this shakes the horizon of the world in which we are, in particular as regards being and thinking.