Moving onwards from the instrumentalist components of Dewey’s pragmatism, Shannon Sullivan uses this excerpt to support her case for the positive potential of pragmatic though within our current society. Previously established through Dewey’s theory on an organism’s life existing within and “through” skin, Sullivan harnesses the acceptance of the “transaction” allowing all processes to occur as a means positive transformation. Through the boundaries of sex and race, Sullivan reveals the human individual as a body no longer bounded by absolute substance. Instead, we can find direction and freedom within the dynamic relationship of body and environment, and address the impact of the insurmountable activities of life “on people’s lived situations and experiences” (Sullivan 3). Acknowledgment of our transactional bodies formation by mutual constitution and categorization of the world comes with the examination of the “hidden assumptions and blind spots” that accompany a particular perspective, and ultimately, the potential of changed habit for achieving what Dewey previously defines as a Great community (Sullivan 4). By encouraging the collaboration and advantages of a transactional perspective of our own body, Sullivan wishes to free the boundaries of fixed habit and improve bodily existence through a blend of 20th Century pragmatism.
Sullivan’s concern remains within the social, ethical, and epistemological implications of transactional bodies, encouraging the explanation of the true harm and benefit of different transactions onto different people. Subject and object compartmentalized as separate entities suggest an exchange that never allows for the conceptualization of co-constitution, so Sullivan respectively begins with her theory of transaction (Sullivan 32). Organisms bounded by their independence are limited to the boundaries established by their fixed existence, interacting in a potentially vicious way (Sullivan 3). Sullivan later cites the values and categorizations constraining the female gender and African American individual, drawing on Siegfried’s recent work for the development of her own “genealogical-phenomenological-pragmatist-feminist” philosophy (Sullivan 9). Recognition of the permeable nature of our body implies a constitution with all environments, whether they are social, cultural, physical, or otherwise. Our mutual influence and impact on one another allows for a relationship that is constantly reestablished by “means of shifts and changes in each other”, and is therefore subject to mutual transformation (Sullivan 6). This co-constitution with environment is based upon Dewey’s theory of human existence, as organisms transacting amongst a wide variety of cultural situations and surroundings. Centralized within her claim for the existence of transactional bodies, her focus remains upon disrupting binary gender and the confines imposed by this structure, hoping to remove all hindrances in pursuit of a “transactional” existence (Sullivan 5).
Rejecting the sharp dualisms in opposition to this existence, Sullivan uses aspects of “continental” philosophy to allow for the recognition of corporeality free from “opposition of bodies to nonmaterial aspects of human existence (Sullivan 5)”. When we formulate dualisms such as nature versus nurture, Sullivan says we mistake bodies as a component of nature that is originally “outside” or “prior” to cultural or social influence (Sullivan 5). Returning yet again to the pragmatism of John Dewey, Sullivan positively attempts to align philosophy with our “real” existence, with hopes of improving and enriching it. Ignoring the “monism” of bodies as a physical substance, pragmatic focus is turned towards bodily activity in conjunction with its environments (Sullivan 8). This action or activity is occurring across or “through” our environments, signifying a “pattern of behavior” which is in alignment with Dewey’s concept of the “mind”, undercutting another dichotomy similar to that of nature and experience or culture (Sullivan 8).
The value in exploring and recognizing the lived experiences of our bodies “attends to the specificities of transactions between bodies and environments”, but only in the method by which Sullivan avoids abrasion (Sullivan 8). The acceptance of a theory of corporeal experience does not mean she is bounded by the “complexities and messiness of bodies”, but rather is capable of turning towards our concrete experience as means for addressing the impacts of this constant transaction (Sullivan 9). Her transaction emphasizes our habit and lived experience as a co-constitutive relationship between body and environment that is far beyond the simplicity of a single substance or being that exists amongst a secondary relationship to the world. Each individual being, no matter what race or gender, exists amongst categorizations, notions, and oppressive realities that come as a consequence of immoral or unprogressive transactions (Sullivan 9). Sullivan wraps elements of Siegfried and Nietzsche theories into a questioning approach to human existence, begging listeners to turn attention not towards metaphysical processes, but to the important “perspectival nature of corporeal existence (Sullivan 10)”. Her feminist focus relies on the basis for human life, shaped by humans’ numerous social, psychic, and cultural particularities. The existence of habit is seen as non-confrontational; Sullivan believes that pragmatic methods should be aimed towards good, and therefore justifies habit as a crucial understanding of gendered existence (Sullivan 7).
I agree with this “existence”, under the same motivations and basis that drive Sullivan to adopt the progressive components of 20th century philosophy. Racism and sexism stand as clear indicators of the negative “transaction” between body and environment, as social, political, and cultural foundations have developed through the oppressive categorization of individuals. The theory presented forth by Sullivan explores “what life can be like when one lives without the security and guarantee that absolute, certain foundations claim to provide”, presenting us with the option for progress (Sullivan 10). Rather than bounding human existence to the ignorance of how or who important processes effect and impact, progress can be put forth by the necessary neglecting of stagnant, uninvolved factors. The way our bodies establish meaning throughout its development is no longer free to an unaltered plane of existence; we exists amongst a flux system of transactions, capable of now examining these systems. Current members of society, oppressed by its past and present flaws, are therefore encouraged to focus on the effect of transactions. These effects are simply the birth of yet another transaction, influencing and manipulating our existence into a racist and oppressive status. In order for each individual to improve their “experience” within the universe, they must set aside all meaningless searches, and focus on the give and take relationship that truly defines their existence.

Sullivan, Shannon. Living across and through Skins: Transactional Bodies, Pragmatism, and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2001. Print.