Welcoming the Other

This collection of essays examines the efforts of philosophers, artists, caretakers, and—perhaps most importantly—teachers to establish a sense of community and interpersonal responsibility in the postmodern world.

The modern turn in political philosophy established the ontological primacy of the ego, reducing the community to a mere assemblage of individuals, and led to the repudiation of natural duties in favor of inherent individual rights. The modern project culminated in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose emphasis on radical individuation left human beings both liberated and exiled. Individuals were free to create (and to recreate) themselves anew, but they were simultaneously uprooted from any larger community. Indeed, the very possibility of shared meaning, let alone shared political life, was called into question. This volume consists of essays addressing the efforts of philosophers, artists, caretakers, and—perhaps most importantly—teachers to reestablish a foundation for political life in postmodernity. The origins of these efforts are diverse, and their modes are varied. Individuals seek communion with the divine, either with or through others; they pursue friendship among strangers; and they search for meaningful relationships in both the classroom and the public square. Reflecting the various means by which individuals seek communion with others and with the transcendent, divine Other, the essays contained in this volume explore the modes through which individuals forge relationships with others in an age of isolation.

Foreword

Wayne Parent

Introduction: The Search for Community in the Postmodern Age

N. Susan Laehn

Thomas R. Laehn

Chapter 1: The Subversiveness of Desire: Descartes, Hobbes, and the Suppression of the Erotic in Modern Thought

Thomas R. Laehn

Chapter 2: Political Participation as Participation in the Transcendent

William P. Schulz, Jr.

Chapter 3: Toward a Politics of Care: Heidegger, Freedom, and the Moral-Political Posture of Authentic Solicitude

Andrea D. Conque

Chapter 4: Subjectivity in Crisis: Emmanuel Levinas and Albert Camus on Exile and Hospitality

N. Susan Laehn

Chapter 5: The Poets & Professor

Peter A. Petrakis

Chapter 6: The Role of Care Structures in Wendell Berry’s Hannah Coulter: Surrogacy, Memory, and Membership in Port William, Kentucky

Drew Kennedy Thompson

Chapter 7: Terror, Nihilism, and Joy: Reconsidering Camus’s Confrontation with Political Violence

John Randolph LeBlanc

William Paul Simmons

Chapter 8: The Birth of Tragedy: Political Theory and the Classroom

W. King Mott

Chapter 9: Political Philosophy as Apprenticeship and Practice

David D. Corey

Afterword: Cecil, Nikos, and Me

James F. Lea