A Philosophy of Loneliness

Paperback, 240 pages

Published March 14, 2017 by Reaktion Books.

ISBN:
9781780237473

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1 star (1 review)

2 editions

I'd rather be lonely than with this book

1 star

Terrible. I got this because it was a footnote in the excellent Arcadia. I was hoping for some insights into loneliness as a concept, what it means for us today, and how we (can) deal with it.

All these topics do appear in chapter headings, but the chapter content does not really provide answers. The author seems scared to say anything in his own words and instead cites philosophers, poets, films and TV shows. Working with citations obviously is not the problem, and working with fiction as examples or to define terms is actually a thing I enjoy immensely, but the author should do more to guide us between these different voices and provide should some own commentary. In the end it reads more like one of those conspiracy cork boards with red string than a book: "What's loneliness? The protagonist of Taxi Driver describes his loneliness like this, …