The body is not only a biological phenomenon, it is also a social creation of immense complexity. It is not so much a given as a social category, with different meanings - composed, imposed and developed in each age and indeed by each individual. The attributes, functions and specific organs of the body and the senses are likewise highly controversial. The author explores the history of thinking about the body and the senses, paying special attention both to shifts in ways of thinking about the body over time and to the clash of different approaches to the body today. How people think and...