Sculpture models the meeting of habit and ideal in embodied spirit.
Evidence
The task of sculpture is to strip from the human organism all traces of ‘immediate signifying’, so that the mutual translation of spirit and embodiment is achieved in stone and marble. The sculptural body, like the body of man which appears at the end of the Anthropology, becomes ‘the sign of the soul’. Hegel describes this state of plasticity as a meeting between the habitus and the ideal: ‘This sort of attitude and movement in their specific appearance (habitus) and expression provide a clearer understanding of the situation in which the organic and the ideal, which can never be merely the ideal in abstracto, are apprehended.’ — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 570
Categorization
- DEFINE: Plasticity is defined here as the meeting between habitus (formed body) and ideal (spirit’s meaning) — the sculptural body becomes ‘the sign of the soul.’
- XREF: Directly grounds the plasticity concept the reader is tracing from Hegel into her brain-plasticity work — the body as sign of soul is the theoretical root of embodied cognition. — connects to: Habit is the hinge connecting Greek substance-subject, self-feeling, and soul as work of art — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 304; Habit-formed man is spirit embodied without need of external referents — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 585; Habit produces the plastic individual as a unity of soul and body — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 582 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Habit-formed man is spirit embodied without need of external referents
#exemplifies(0.88) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 585 - Humans as habit-forming creatures exemplify spirit’s incarnation
#corroborates(0.87) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 489 - Habit is the hinge connecting Greek substance-subject, self-feeling, and soul as work of art
#exemplifies(0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 304 - Habit produces the plastic individual as a unity of soul and body
#expands(0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 582