自從蘇格拉底開始，歐洲哲學，尤其是近代哲學為一種「精神主義」所籠罩，以致於思想脫離不開圍繞「意識我」為軸心而貶低身體的「意識哲學」這種思考架構。然而，特別是在現象學的引導之下，從尼采開始，當代歐洲思維持續不斷地試圖調整甚或突破近代認知論的遺產，致力將人人皆所有且所是的「身體自我」納入到哲學的省思脈絡。可是，重要的問題卻就在於此，這個身體自我究竟具有何種性質？它具有何種哲學地位？而且哲學能如何、該如何探討此身體自我？針對這樣的當代問題意識，本論文試圖採取一種跨文化哲學的路徑，借助王陽明的「心學」，在彷彿也是隸屬於意識哲學架構的陽明思想中突顯出身體自我以及身體的種種面向對修身工夫固有的重要性，以為將來的身體哲學拓開一個不再屬於認知論的思考脈絡：要從身體自我在倫理學視域中既有的地位和身份為出發點，探索身體如何當作主體通往世界的實踐性管道，以便由此觀點重新來商榷
當代思維對身體現象所抱懷的關切。

Since Socrates, European philosophy, particularly post-medieval philosophy, has been subject to sort of a spiritualist prejudice, according to which thought has proven unable to get rid of a framework centered on the conscious I, systematically devaluating the body. Yet beginning with Nietzsche, also mainly lead by phenomenology, contemporary European thought continuously has been trying to adjust or overcome this heritage handed down by classical epistemology, attempting to integrate the very bodily self all of us have and are, into the field of reflection. However, here important questions arise, such as what nature does this bodily self actually consist of? What philosophical status should it be attributed? How can or should philosophy investigate into this bodily self? With respect to this contemporary complex of problems, this paper chooses a trans-cultural philosophical approach, taking advantage of the so-called “doctrine of the heart-mind” held by the Ming-confucian Wang Yangming. This is an attempt to elucidate, within the horizon of what is generally considered sort of a philosophy of consciousness framework, i.e. Yangming’s thought, several aspects of the bodily self and its signification for self-cultivation. With respect to any future philosophy of the body, I try to advance an approach which is no longer dominated by classical epistemology: taking the ethical role the bodily self plays as starting point, this paper discusses how the body yields a practical relation between the subject and the world, in order to eventually, from this stance, reconsider present-day philosophers’ interest for body phenomena.