<![CDATA[Human embodiment is widely acknowledged at least cognitively but often felt existentially in the experience of illness. When falling ill, the human being experiences the body not so much as a corporeal tool for world accomplishments as part of the self that is lived. Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology offers analysis of the experience of a lived body and has contributed to its further applications in various realms including health. The emphasis, however, has been placed on the distinction between objective body and a lived body at the expense of the meaning of the particular negative experience of the body during illness. Engaging the thoughts of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, I argue that the experience of illness gives rise to the realization of the nature of the body not merely as a lived one, but more fundamentally as a vulnerable one. In addition to a possible worse condition, such vulnerability is experienced particularly in relation to the very foundations of the human being’s existence. Informed by Sartre’s phenomenology, I show that the experience of illness also brings to the fore part of human nature as a recalcitrant conscious ego. The interplay between a vulnerable body and an obstinate ego that refuses to give in to such fragility shows the true nature of human beings beyond their sheer duality.]]>
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