Criticism of the modern notion of corporality: A medieval reflection from the Cur Deus Homo of Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Abstract

Modern science has reduced the study of reality to a single position, showing a reductive tendency of the real only exclusive to the verifiable fact of sensible experience. The proposal is to show a counterpart from a philosophical perspective. Contemporary philosophy, especially the so-called new realism, has begun to problematize this single vision of reality. Thus, the ontology of the XXI century allows us to reassess the philosophical notions of being, existence, reality, and body. This article critically questions the scientific results achieved by an explaining modern philosophy about the body. A reflection inspired by the Cur Deus Homo of Saint Anselm of Canterbury will allow us to outline this critical alternative to the modern understanding of the origin of consciousness and its corporality. The novelty of this thought is circumscribed to the medieval ontological understanding of creatio ex nihilo, an explanation that does not necessarily resort to a redoubt of the real with its spatio-temporal characteristics, since the foundation of being is given by an exteriority of creative power divine, that although it may not be fully accepted by contemporary philosophy and science, the new realism has been concerned with re-problematize the question of God.