Somist

Somist is a philosophical and cultural current advocating that embodiment and lived experience are central to knowledge and value judgment, resisting dualist and abstract approaches that separate mind and body. It emphasizes attentive interaction with the world and a practical orientation toward everyday ethics.

The term arose in online philosophical communities in the early 21st century. It draws on phenomenology, somatics, and pragmatist ethics, and it is not anchored to a single founder or institution. Its scope includes philosophical reflection, art, education, and wellness contexts.

Core beliefs include that perceptual and bodily processes structure cognition, ethics are situated and relational, and autonomy is expressed through consent and embodied agency. Somists advocate practices such as mindful movement, sensory journaling, body-aware inquiry, and reflective collaboration to cultivate embodiment.

Organization is decentralized; there are loose networks, study groups, and publications rather than a central church or school. Scholarly reception is mixed; supporters praise its inclusivity and attention to lived experience, while critics question definitional clarity and potential essentialism of embodiment.

In contemporary discourse, Somist ideas intersect with embodied cognition, somatic therapies, and design ethics, influencing educational methods, user experience research, and cultural critiques of mind–body separation.