Joseph R. Morgan
Western Metaphysics and the History of Knowledge about Bodies
Key Terms and Names
Western Metaphysics – a way of viewing the world that creates dichotomies in which one ideal is
privileged as superior or transcendent, the other inferior and “physical.” Manifestations of this can
be seen in the male/female divide, or the white/black divide and the able-bodied/disabled divide.
Initially intended to be a critique of Greek education in Plato’s day, Western metaphysics is a
method for finding “truth,” in some cases religiously, but it has also come to function as a way of
privileging science of cultural studies.
Western Humanism – a tradition identified by JanMohamed and Lloyd. It is the process by which the
Western literary traditions have created standards that follow the ideals of Western metaphysics.
Essentially, it is a process that privileges Western authors who subscribe to specific ways of creating
art and systematically rejects all other forms that do not comply with those standards.
Conceptual register – simply put, a method of thinking, used in this paper as a way to describe how
Western metaphysics becomes a way of thought or a method of analyzing the world.
Plato – a Greek philosopher who wrote The Republic and essentially created Western Metaphysics for
the sake of improving the educational models of his time.
William Wordsworth and Walt Whitman – two of western culture’s “great poets” who I use to show how
Western metaphysics has come to influence the study of social justice in our universities in a very
negative way. Both poet’s work advocate for the split between body and intellect while Whitman
goes on to apply the rhetoric of normativity in a racist and, essentially, ableist sense.
Abdul JanMohamed and David S. Lloyd – Authors of “Towards a Theory of Minority Discourse.”
Cardinal Newman – A man who, in 1858, promoted the creation of studies in the humanities as a way of
teaching American culture.
Micheal Berube – A cultural critic used here to place studies in the humanities in relation to the applied
sciences.
David Mitchel and Sharon Snyder - disability studies scholars who wrote Cultural Locations of Disability,
a book which is used here for its wonderful commentary on eugenics in relation to its effects on
modes of research and a wide range of its cultural implications.