Light Through the Crack: The Meaning of Life in the Face of Adversity

Description

An epidemic such as COVID-19 challenges life’s very order and meaning, interferes in our relations with others, and breaks apart our routine. It raises many questions in the realms of ethics, politics, theology, psychology, and beyond. Perhaps more than anything else, it prompts us to ponder: what does this encounter with widespread anguish and distress imply about the human self-perception as sovereign rulers of Earthly life? In this book, renowned thinker Avi Sagi explores the existential matters brought to the philosophical fore by the pandemic. He shows how we, when thrown into the terror of a crisis, carry the traditions, values, ideals, hopes, failures, and habits that constitute our lives, all shaping the way we grapple with questions seemingly resolved. We may then find that the crack that opens up at times of sorrow can also be a moment of discovery. Sagi analyzes various ways of confronting the crack now at the heart of our existence. What emerges is a clear normative statement: We are not only what we were but also what we can be, and we can create a world of meaning by standing together with others. Acknowledgments Contents Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: An Essay on the Crack On Philosophy and Literature, or the Author’s Apology Toward a Phenomenology of the Crack The Catastrophic and the Routine Crack The Crack as a New Existential Option The Crack and the Poetic of the Self The Crack and the Revelation of the Human Chapter 3: The Ethics of a Solidary Stand in Adversity: Thoughts on The Plague On Illness: Between Illness and Plague Plague and the Undermining of the World Order The Existential Problem On Taking a Stand Readiness Chapter 4: From Solipsism to Being with the Other Chapter 5: Epidemics, Rebellion, and Faith Being at Home and Moments of Crisis The Restoration of Home Toward a Theology of Evil The Theology of Evil and the Ethic of Suffering On the Meaning of Faith Chapter 6: Guilt, Responsibility, and Interpersonal Relations The Guilt Discourse Types of Guilt On Types of Guilt and Their Meaning Metaphysical Guilt On Interpersonal Communication and Existence On Existential Guilt The Reconstitution of the Guilt Discourse Chapter 7: Bereavement and Moral Birth: Jacob’s Moral Development Chapter 8: Suffering, Compassion, and Consolation: Reflections on Aharon Appelfeld’s Writings The Literary Voyage: The Passion for Meaning On the Meaning of Suffering Chapter 9: The “Thou-Other” Dialogue: On Distance and Closeness On the Dialogical Relation and Otherness The Ontological Meaning of the Other The Epistemological Meaning of Otherness Otherness: As Absoluteness and Independence The Specificity in Otherness The “I-Thou” Relation in the I-Thou Text The Thou and the “Other” in the I-Thou Relation The Development of the Category of the Other In the Beginning Is the I The Later Dialogical Approach COVID Days: Distance, Intimacy, and Dialogue Chapter 10: Epilogue References Index