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Embodied meaning is a new approach to understanding the significance of all symbols, including those of language, as association in human experience. It has been developed since the 1980’s, but its full practical significance has rarely been applied, nor have the full challenges that it presents to entrenched assumptions been followed through. Robert M. Ellis here develops a detailed multi-disciplinary account of the role of embodied meaning in the Middle Way as a practical path. This includes criticisms of some ways that embodied meaning has been confused with belief. At the heart of his practical case for the applying embodied meaning in our lives are the concepts of fragmentation and integration of meaning. A variety of practices, including the arts, enable us to develop our meaning resources, both ‘cognitively’ and ‘emotionally’, and thus create the imaginative conditions for provisionality of belief.

Published: Sep 15, 2025

Book Contributors

• Author - Robert M. Ellis ([email protected] - rmellis) 'Middle Way Society'
• Author - Iain McGilchrist ([email protected] - imcgilchrist) 'All Soul’s College, Oxford'

Series

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Section	Chapter	Authors
Prelims
	List of Diagrams	Robert Ellis
	Foreword to the Middle Way Philosophy Series	Iain McGilchrist
	Acknowledgements	Robert Ellis
Introduction
	Introduction	Robert Ellis
Chapter 1
	Embodied Meaning	Robert Ellis
Chapter 2
	The Trouble with Representationalism	Robert Ellis
Chapter 3
	Taking Embodied Meaning Seriously	Robert Ellis
Chapter 4
	The Fragmentation of Meaning	Robert Ellis
Chapter 5
	Integration of Meaning	Robert Ellis
Conclusion
	Conclusion	Robert Ellis