Strangers by Choice: An Asocial Philosophy of Life.. Translated by Tul'si Bhambry and Agnieszka Waskiewicz. Editorial work by Tul'si Bhambry.

300 Pages·2014·2.01 MB·English

by  Andrzej Waskiewicz

Modernity in Question 4 Modernity in Question
Studies in Philosophy, Sociology and History of Ideas 4 Studies in Philosophy, Sociology and History of Ideas 4
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Andrzej Was´kiewicz
Strangers by Choice
Andrzej Was´kiewicz
Strangers by Choice explores voluntary otherness as a philosophy of life. This philosophy e
is asocial in the sense that its followers tend to privilege separateness over belonging, c
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and yet it does not lead to alienation or isolation from society. Building on Simmel’s o Strangers by Choice
notion of the stranger, the author sheds light on the experience of spiritual idealists, h
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both real and fictional, who maintain a distance from mainstream society in order to
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live by the laws of their transcendental homelands. Was´kiewicz addresses representations b An Asocial Philosophy of Life
of strangeness from a broad spectrum of Western culture, including Stoic philosophy, s
Augustine of Hippo, Henry David Thoreau, the physicist Richard Feynman, and finally r
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Highlighting how these writers and thinkers have negotiated g
individuality and community, this interdisciplinary study contributes to debates on n
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identity in both practical philosophy and the history of ideas. r
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The Author
Andrzej Was´kiewicz teaches the history of social and political ideas at the University
of Warsaw’s Institute of Sociology and the Collegium Artes Liberales (Poland). The
Polish original of Strangers by Choice was shortlisted for the Gdynia Literary Prize in
2009.
www.peterlang.com
MQ 04_264040_Waskiewicz_AK_A5HC PLA research new.indd 1 11.12.14 17:15
Strangers by Choice
MODERNITY IN QUESTION
STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF IDEAS

Edited by Małgorzata Kowalska

VOLUME 4
Andrzej Wa kiewicz
ś
Strangers by Choice
An Asocial Philosophy of Life
Translated by Tul'si Bambry and Agnieszka Wa kiewicz.
Editorial work by Tul'si Bambry ś
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche
Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibli-
ografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the
internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
The Publication is founded by Ministry of Science and Higher Education
of the Republic of Poland as a part of the National Program
for the Development of the Humanities.
This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Ministry
cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of
the information contained therein.”
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wa kiewicz, Andrzej, 1963-
Strangers by choice : an asocial philosophy of life / Andrzej Wa kiewicz. – 1
[ediśtion].
pages cm. – (Modernity in question, ISSN 2193-3421 ; Volumśe 4)
ISBN 978-3-631-64040-1
1. Theological anthropology. 2. Spirituality. 3. Alienation (Theology) 4. Alien-
ation (Philosophy) 5. Alienation (Social psychology) 6. Simmel, Georg, 1858-
1918. I. Title.
BL256.W38 2014
128–dc23
2014032011
ISSN 2193-3421
ISBN 978-3-631-64040-1 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-02421-0 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/ 978-3-653-02421-0
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2015
All rights reserved.
Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH.
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Oxford · Warszawa · Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any
utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
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This publication has been peer reviewed.
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Table of Contents
Introduction. Alien without Alienation .................................................................9
Yearning for the ‘true homeland’ ....................................................................9
The stranger according to Georg Simmel .....................................................12
Simmel on social distance ............................................................................18
The stranger and individualism ....................................................................22
Inspired by Simmel ......................................................................................24
Chapter 1. On the Threshold of the Cave............................................................27
A philosopher in the polis .............................................................................27
The sage: a god among people .....................................................................30
The Cosmic City ...........................................................................................42
The wise man and the philosopher in the earthly state .................................55
Rational brotherhood ....................................................................................69
Chapter 2. Towards the Heavenly Abode ............................................................73
A Christian in times of trouble .....................................................................73
Christianity as a refi ned practical philosophy ..............................................75
Life as a pilgrimage ......................................................................................84
The Church as an imagined community .......................................................93
On the way and out of the way ...................................................................103
A Christian on the margins of a post-Christian world ................................114
Chapter 3. Somewhere between Nature and People .........................................117
Thoreau and his legend ...............................................................................117
Thoreau and his vocation............................................................................121
Humankind in the shackles of civilization .................................................134
Friendship without friends? ........................................................................145
Communion with Nature? ..........................................................................153
In the cabin and in prison ...........................................................................159
Walking beyond the town boundaries ........................................................170
Chapter 4. Between People and Elementary Particles ......................................173
Feynman: passion versus fortune ...............................................................173
Playing at fi nding things out .......................................................................176
Taking science seriously .............................................................................192
The pros and cons of institutions ................................................................203
Passion, play, theories and institutions .......................................................212
6 Table of Contents
Chapter 5. Close to Oneself ..............................................................................215
Rousseau: otherness and alienation ............................................................215
The unity of the body politic ......................................................................218
Clarens: a church without transcendence ...................................................231
Emile, a savage in the city ..........................................................................241
Individualism, otherness and solitude ........................................................263
Closing Remarks. Masters without Servants; or: Aristocrats on the Margins
of Social Life .....................................................................................................267
Strangers by choice among other strangers ................................................267
Transcendental strangeness ........................................................................272
An absent idea ............................................................................................282
Bibliography .....................................................................................................287
To my wife