INTRODUCTION

The particular approach that we have chosen to adopt in this collection ("Embodiment and Emotions in twentieth-Century German Philosophy") is strictly focused, from a historico-philosophical point of view, on the context of German philosophical traditions and debates in the twentieth century. Of course, the reason for our thematic and methodological choice does not rely on the false idea that, during the twentieth century, only in the German philosophical context valuable and original contributions on embodiment and emotions were offered by various thinkers—which would obviously be historico-philosophically naïve, incorrect and unjust. At the same time, however, it seems to us that some of the most stimulating reflections on embodiment and emotions that have characterized the wide, complex and plural philosophical scenarios of the twentieth century have precisely emerged within the context of German thought and, quite interestingly, in the context of diverse philosophical traditions that, although all belonging to the same geographical and cultural context, were nonetheless rival with each other and sometimes explicitly challenging each other: Neo-Kantianism, Lebensphilosophie, phenomenology, critical theory, hermeneutics, philosophical anthropology, etc.