| dc.description.abstract | The present article is a reflection on solitude, perceived as human fundamental experience
related to the nature of being, i.e. ontologically, and understood as a certain mode of existence,
i.e. ontically. Ontological solitude is expressed in “limit situations”, such as birth, pain, or
death. Ontic solitude results from certain personality characteristics and social conditions of
the subject; of those some are discussed in the article. The author recalls certain philosophical
ideas, especially those of existentialism, which is particularly a philosophy of solitude
(J.P Sartre, S. Kierkegaard, M. Heidegger, and others). Ontological solitude is the very nature
of human existence, thus it is impossible to fight it, yet ontically we can create our existence
and avoid situations that generate painful solitude and destructive feelings of abandonment
and isolation. However, it also happens that solitude becomes an asylum, a consciously chosen
refuge from the noisy, chaotic world, especially in the today’s “tough”, or even cruel reality
of commercialism, consumption, and violence. Such “chosen” solitude may be connected
with sadness and nostalgia, but never becomes the despair that is usually experienced in the
“unwanted” solitude, to which we are forced, against our will, by a given existential situation.
The “chosen” solitude is, in a way, rational self-knowledge, and thus it frequently becomes
the source of invention and creation. | en_EN |
