From a World Relations to a World of Things

When I think of the human body I think of it as some thing with a shape or form, something contained and bounded such that it is separated and distinct from its environment. Even as this body gains its sustenance, and thus its continued existence, from this environment it remains distinct from it. Indeed, that distinction seems central in some way to its existence as a thing in the world. I find it interesting too that both Henri Lefebvre and Anil Seth, separated by both time and topic, should both note that in some fundamental way, our existence as a body in the world and the awareness of this fact is key to our being. This bounded nature of a living body is not, of course, essential to saying some thing exists distinct from other such things. A hurricane has a shape and even mechanisms—indeed laws (thermodynamics)—to give it shape. We see it, we recognise it; yet, if we grant it a boundary, it is a boundary distinct from that of the body of living beings.