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Loneliness

Edited by Leroy S. Rouner

Boston University Studies in Philosophy and Religion

He stood alone at the door of his home,

With his long-legged heart in his hand.

Dylan Thomas

The cover photograph on this volume illustrates the ambivalence of loneliness. The easy stance of the young man is graceful as he looks toward the world beyond home; but he is alone, and must seemingly make his way in the world alone.

Many of the contributors in Loneliness share this sentiment about the nature of loneliness. Loneliness is precious because it is the source of much human creativity; but it is also a cause of distress, because we are social animals, born into families, needing each other to be whole in ourselves.

This volume is a natural companion to Volume 16, The Longing for Home, the earlier study of nostalgia which was rooted in St. Augustine’s cry of the heart to God that humankind is “restless ‘till we find our rest in Thee.” It is important to explore the reason for this longing, which is, of course, that we are lonely; and, whatever else it may mean, to be at home ultimately means not to be lonely anymore.

What we explore in Loneliness is something which underlies those occasional forms of personal loneliness which are familiar to us all. First, there is a cultural loneliness, characteristic of the modern world. Urban Americans, for example, are inherently lonely in a way that villagers in India are not. And then there is an even deeper loneliness that is a universal human experience, inherent in the human condition.

The contributors explore a fundamental human issue and create new perspectives on this age-old problem. Contributors include: Wesley J. Wildman, Daniel O. Dahlstrom, William Desmond, Juliet Floyd, Hilary Putnam, Eliot Deutsch, Elie Wiesel, Ruth Anna Putnam, Daniel Berrigan, Christopher Ricks, Lawrence Cahoone, Kathleen M. Sands, Dennis O’Brien, Robert Cummings Neville, Malcolm David Eckel.

Leroy S. Rouner is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Philosophical Theology and Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Religion at Boston University.

Reviews

“These essays from the Boston University Studies in Philosophy and Religion series are grouped into three major sections: philosophies of loneliness, literature and the “lonely prophet,” and varieties of cultural loneliness. Along with general philosophical explorations of loneliness and solitude in the first section are several pieces on solipsism in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. The second part includes an article by Elie Wiesel on Moses and Daniel Berrigan’s portrait of the life of Dorothy Day. The cultural essays in section 3 cover loneliness in the modern state, the lives of several significant 20th-century women, sex, Confucianism, and Buddhism. The scope of the book is far-ranging in its exploration of the gifts and sufferings of loneliness. In general the essays are insightful and well written.” — Choice