Loneliness

Notes

Claim

Loneliness is opposed to Solitude enables introspection and deep cognitive work, because loneliness makes us feel detached from others, and since Human is a social being, this detachment is painful.

Explanation

Note that loneliness is not necessarily physical. One can be alone while being surrounded by people, or having a community without meeting people face to face, although it does have it's limits.

Loneliness can be created when we try to free ourselves from others. Becoming completely "free" without depending on others might sound liberating, but like the tree example, when we escape the ground we are free to go anywhere, yet our freedom is theoretical and not practical because we lack the resources, the motivation, the sense of meaning to actualize it.

Why it matters

We need others to be happy, without people around us we are like a plant without the ground, we wither and die.

Some might say that every thing we do is in order to escape our loneliness, whether we choose to Conform to others just to belong, or whether we dedicate ourselves to helping others Surrendering agency to external forces destroys individual identity.

Examples

Supporters

Opposers

Open questions

One requires Self-awareness reveals mental and emotional states enabling intentional action to know whether their actions are a result of escaping loneliness or really pursuing something else.

Visual

Overview

🔼Topic:: Social Connection and Belonging ↩️Origin:: 🔗Link::