Resonanz und Stimmung in ganzheitlichen Anthropologien der Aufklärung und Gegenwart

In contemporary theories of embodiment, resonance is used frequently to emphasize  the  complex  interdependencies  between  body,  mind  and  environment. A closer look at scientific, philosophical, and aesthetic theory of the enlightenment shows that resonance as a metaphor and figure of thought, describing increasingly complex phenomena  of  interaction  and  interdependencies, was  already  popular  in  cognitive  theory (Hartley), psychology (Sulzer), psychiatry (Reil) and aesthetic theory (Webb, Schiller, Kant) in  the  18th  Century.  In Germany,  the  concept  of  resonance  becomes  highly  productive around 1800 when it is combined with “Stimmung” (tuning) as its precondition. The paper traces epistemologically significant transformations of the two closely linked figures within holistic anthropologies, challenging dualistic notions of body and mind since the enlightenment. After an overview of these figures during the Enlightenment, it concentrates on Jacob von Uexküll’s use of “Stimmung” in his physiological explanation of Kant’s teleological causality of living organisms in the middle of the 20th Century, which paves the way for their introduction into contemporary theories of embodiment and enactivism. The epistemological potential of these figures is illustrated in an analysis of Thomas Fuchs’ phenomenological  theory of embodied anthropology, distinguishing  clearly between a mechanical view of the body and the embodied experience of living organisms.