英語中的名詞embodiment,是動詞embody的衍生詞,它們的含義都是"體現"。動詞體現于16世紀中葉進入英語詞匯,與成詞更早的incorporate(肉身化的、具體的)一樣,都是對拉丁語incorporare(化身、體現)的模仿,"化入身體"的常常是命、魂、靈、思等。如其詞形所示,體現一詞包含了西方哲學、神學、心理學、認知科學等多種學科對身—心關系的思考。從歷史上看,身體不是一個不言自明的概念,命、魂、靈、思也各有其產生與運用的語境。這篇文章沿著命、魂、靈、思等概念的更替,梳理了它們與身體的關系,以此理解體現一詞內含的思想交鋒。

"Embody," the verb form of embodiment, entered English in the mid-16 th century. Like the existing word "incorporate," "embody" was also formed on the pattern of Latin incorporare. What is embodied includes thumos, psychē, spirit, mind, etc. Embodiment keeps raising the mind-body problem addressed by Western philosophy, theology, psychology and cognitive science. The history of the mind-body problem shows that the conceptualization of the body requires intellectual effort. The concepts of thumos, psychē, spirit, and mind are also formed and used in different and distinct contexts. An examination of how one of those concepts is replaced by another illustrates the epistemic shifts in discussing the relation of mental phenomena to physical phenomena.