La Distinction Indifférente

The concept of distinction is central to the German reception of PierreBourdieu's work. The specific translations of the main terms which are linkeddirectly to the concept of distinction, namely the body (‘Leib’) and the agent(‘Akteur’), as well as the translation of the concept of distinction itself(‘Unterscheid’), lead to a reconsideration of their meanings in Bourdieu'soriginal French works. The analysis has been carried out with reference tophysical suffering and shows that – contrary to what the German semantics of‘distinction’ suggests – Bourdieu's distinction does not incorporate its owndifferentiation. The concept reflects the privileged status granted to adescription and explanation of social practices which build on a strongprinciple of relation. However, the concept has a disadvantage in that it doesnot give consideration to the phenomena of deconstruction which refer todifferentiations of distinctive logics which can appear in the context ofphysical suffering.