The Body Speaks: Kearney and Ricoeur on Embodiment and Meaning

Richard Kearney’s work on embodiment in Carnal Hermeneutics is congruent with embodiment and narrative identity themes in Paul Ricoeur’s philosophy. However, Kearney offers a more explicit and visceral focus on the sensual dimensions of human experience. Both thinkers share a grounding in phenomenology and hermeneutics, emphasizing the relational and interpretive nature of human existence. However, Kearney expands on Ricoeur’s ideas, placing the body at the center of hermeneutic activity and exploring its role in shaping meaning, ethics, and encounters with the sacred.

For Paul Ricoeur, embodiment is fundamental to the human experience. Ricoeur presents the body as the lived site where identity, action, and perception unfold in works like Oneself as Another and Time and Narrative. The concept of attestation, a form of embodied self-understanding and trust in one’s existence, underscores the interplay between the self and the world, mediated through the body. Ricoeur, influenced by phenomenologists such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty, highlights the body’s dual nature as both subject and object—active in perceiving the world yet passively affected by it. This dynamic grounds human understanding and links embodiment to life's ethical and temporal dimensions.

Kearney builds on this phenomenological foundation, positioning the body as the first interpretation site. For Kearney, hermeneutics does not begin in abstract cognition but in the physical and sensory encounters with the world. Sensory experiences such as touch, taste, and smell are foundational in shaping how humans interpret reality, offering the raw material from which meaning is constructed. In this sense, Kearney’s work complements Ricoeur’s concept of narrative identity, where human selfhood is constructed through stories that integrate bodily experiences, memories, and aspirations. Kearney insists that these narratives are profoundly shaped by the carnal—our sensory memories and physical encounters.

Both philosophers also explore the ethical implications of embodiment, though Kearney places greater emphasis on carnal vulnerability. For Ricoeur, the body's vulnerability is central to his moral philosophy, as seen in works like Oneself as Another and The Course of Recognition. The fragility and finitude of embodied existence call forth a sense of responsibility and compassion for others. Drawing on this framework, Kearney emphasizes the visceral dimension of ethical encounters. The touch of another person or the recognition of shared physical fragility becomes a site of moral responsibility rooted in abstract principles and the fleshly reality of human relationships.

Ricoeur’s work on sacred and symbolic mediation also aligns with Kearney’s focus on the sensual dimensions of religious experience. Ricoeur explores how symbols and narratives mediate encounters with the divine, often through embodied practices such as rituals and sacraments. Kearney deepens this perspective, suggesting that the sacred is encountered through symbols and the immediate sensuous and fleshy aspects of life. His concept of atheism—a return to the divine after doubt—reflects how embodied experiences, such as the taste of bread in the Eucharist, can serve as profound sites of divine revelation.

While there are significant resonances between the two, Kearney’s work represents an expansion of Ricoeur’s insights. Ricoeur focuses on the narrative and symbolic dimensions of embodiment, whereas Kearney places the sensory and tactile experience of the body at the forefront. This shift leads Kearney to explore hermeneutics's aesthetic and intercorporeal aspects in greater depth. He builds on the phenomenological insights of Merleau-Ponty and Levinas, emphasizing the shared, relational nature of embodied existence and how it informs meaning-making ethics and encounters with others.

This way, Kearney’s carnal hermeneutics extends and deepens Ricoeur's hermeneutics by emphasizing the interpretation's sensual foundations. Together, their work provides a holistic vision of embodiment, linking bodily experience, narrative, ethics, and the sacred in the ongoing project of understanding human life. While Ricoeur lays the groundwork for a hermeneutics of the self and its narrative, Kearney insists that interpretation begins in the flesh, challenging purely cognitive or symbolic accounts and inviting us to engage with the visceral dimensions of meaning.