Solitude: A Philosophical EncounterThe author identifies five intrinsic virtues of solitude: Freedom of Action; Attunement to Self; Attunement to Nature; Reflective Perspective; and Creativity. The common objections to solitude - that it is empty, pointless, vain, foolish, lonely, dangerous, unnatural, morbid, self-indulgent, selfish, escapist, evasive of social responsibility, irrelevant for post-modern women, and culturally limited to alienated privilege in late stages of capitalism - are each given their say and then critically dismantled. Professor Koch's discussion includes an overview of historical restrictions on solitude for women, as well as contemporary women's writings on solitude, and a detailed study of the role of solitude in the classics of ancient Taoism. |
Contents
THE NATURE OF SOLITUDE | 5 |
Dimensions | 13 |
Loneliness Isolation Privacy Alienation | 29 |
Disengagement | 49 |
Engaged Disengagement | 57 |
The Symmetry of Engagement and Disengagement | 81 |
Images of Solitude | 93 |
EVALUATING SOLITUDE | 97 |
The Arguments Apriori | 153 |
Arguments from Experience | 181 |
Some History | 201 |
Responses | 219 |
Women and Solitude | 249 |
A Universal Value? | 275 |
EPILOGUE | 299 |
NOTES | 301 |
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Common terms and phrases
alienation anchoress Ancrene Wisse Antony argue argument attunement awareness becomes Being-with called century chapter Chuang Tzu Cited claims consciousness contemplation culture D. H. Lawrence death Descartes desert Desert Fathers desire discussion disengagement Emily Dickinson emotion engagement existence experience experiential expressions eyes fact feeling felt Franz Kafka freedom hermits human Ibid idea imagination individual inner insisted involves isolation Koller Lao Tzu Leibniz living loneliness lonely meaning Menocchio metaphor metaphysical Mijuskovic mind monads moral nature objects Octavio Paz one's pain perhaps person Petrarch phenomenology philosophical pond presence reflection remarks Sarton seems sense separate silence social society solitary solitary experience solitude and encounter soul spirit Tao Teh Ching Taoism things Thoreau thought Tillich tion true University Press virtues of solitude Walden Walden Pond whole wilderness woman women wonder words writing wrote York