ABSTRACT
Can we explain a body? We fell for the temptation to paraphrase Ludwig Wittgenstein: ``Can we explain a Beethoven sonata?'' (1989). The human body represents a very complex, ambiguous and fascinating phenomenon. Explaining a body implies reducing its ambiguity to language and language is never adequate. When we speak about the body, it is the spoken-about body we refer to, and not the body itself. Examples of the ambiguity of the human body can be found in the important distinctions between a living and a dead body, between a sick and a healthy body, and between the body as subject and object.
