The '''body [[philosophers]]''' (or '''philosophers of action''') advocate the grounding of all assertions in the observer's (human, primate, mammal, living, moving, observing, reacting) body. They are sometimes associated with [[feminism]] or [[postmodernism]] but are difficult to characterize in philosphers' terms.
Although this movement is known by various names, all would generally acknowledge the central question as being that raised by [[Wittgenstein]]: "What is left over if I subtract the fact that my arm goes up from the fact that I raise my arm?"
"Solving this equation is supposed to reveal what makes the difference between a mere bodily movement and an action; and the difference between mere movements and actions is what the philosophy of action seeks to identify." - [[David Velleman]]
Extreme advocates of this grounding reject the doctrine of [[falsifiability]] on the grounds that it is biased by prior investment in [[infrastructural capital]] (test equipment, computers, universities, military hardware) and [[instructional capital]] (culture that insists that this infrastructure is useful). Many such extremists are associated with the [[anti-globalization movement]], various strains of [[anarchism]], and the [[French situationiste movement of 1968]] centering on [[Michel Foucault]]. It is often hard for third party observers to distinguish those movement from [[postmodernism]], indeed Foucault is often characterized as belonging to multiple movements.
The individual views regarding body and action axioms are quite complex and difficult to summarize, in part because many are embodied in specialized instructions, or because they deliberately exploit variance in language, reject prose or academe, or deny the natural language dictionary as a [[foundation ontology]]. Not all of these theorists accept the concepts of "model", "notation", "decision", "philosophy", "philosopher" or (following [[Wittgenstein]]) "action" itself. Cooperation amongst these theorists is generally confined to those seeking a reasonable method or an "algebra of doing", a study most identified with [[Charles Ortiz]] and [[Judea Pearl]].
Others focus on an refutation of [[falsifiability]] and of [[Number]], in defiance of various academic and professional boundaries and conventions, as part of a general critique of [[dominator culture]] and its categories.
Current theorists in this category include [[George Lakoff]] - originator of a [[cognitive science of mathematics]], [[John Zerzan]] - a key critic of [[Number]], and [[Brian Rotman]], author of "Signifying Nothing: The Semiotics of Zero and Ad Infinitum", "The Ghost in Turing's Machine: Taking God out of Mathematics and Putting the Body Back In", "Circa 2,000" and "The Technology of Mathematical Persuasion".
The [[political science]] identified with these views is that of [[direct action]] and [[bodily commitment]] as practiced in the [[peace movement]]. Some characterize all ethics not firmly grounded in bodies as profound evil:
"Jesus was murdered by people who were motivated by a contagious and pandemic emotional illness which had infected them. This sickness has ravaged the human race for the past 5,000 years. It is the cause of patriarchy, rape, hatred and murder of gays and lesbians, greed, loss of contact with, and destruction of, the environment, cruelty to animals, lust for power, Fascism, war, and genocide." - [[Mark S. Bilk]]
Others, most notably [[Carol Moore]], are less judgemental. She and her followers characterize [[Gandhi]] as "an intuitive systems theorist" and the process of [[satyagraha]] as an example of active defiance of [[Number]] and its implicit violence.
Certain [[feminist]] factions of the [[Green Movement]], most notably those inspired by [[Jane Jacobs]] and [[Marilyn Waring]], exploit either or both of these views to advocate [[bioregional democracy]] - which assigns [[ecoregions]] a status as bodies or actors, which they lack in the [[political science]] of a [[dominator culture]]. Or, some say, a patriarchy.
External links:
[http://www.secession.net secession.net - Carol Moore]
[http://maxwell.lucifer.com/virus/alt.memetics/dominator.html "Dominator Culture"]
[http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/415873.html "A commonsense language for reasoning about causation and rational action", Ortiz]
[http://bayes.cs.ucla.edu/LECTURE/lecture_sec2.htm "The Art and Science of Causal Effect" including outline of "algebra of doing" - Pearl]
[http://www.what-is-cancer.com/papers/wobandphilosophers.html WOB]
[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~velleman/542/ "Philosophy of Action" - David Velleman]
[http://www.webster.edu/~evansja/guides/plato/phaedo.html Phaedo "philosophy is the practice of dying"]
[http://de.cstcc.cc.tn.us/LearningStylesWorkshop/Gardner.htm - Howard Gardner's "Theory of Multiple Intelligences"]
[http://www.duke.edu/literature/PastSpeakers.htm referencing Rotman's works]
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