Focus / Pandemic
Celebrating the ordinary – When I talk to friends in Sweden, Denmark, Spain and Italy, I am struck by how important it has become for so many people to go to the hairdresser. It is not about vanity, but about a need for what is socially familiar, to be able to be among people – and look decent. This is what Petra Andersson, researcher in practical philosophy, argues. CAN CRISES, isolation and increased awareness of our mortality make us better people? Petra Andersson is doubtful. – There is an old concept that suffering is ennobling, but I believe it is the other way around, that good experiences lead to good people. And the idea that isolation is good for the soul has also been around for a while. History is full of philosophers, religious people and
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GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2020
sages who self-isolated for contemplation – just as people today go on retreats to cultivate their inner world. Instead, generally speaking, the current pandemic has revealed our tremendous need for fellowship. Man is simply a social animal. THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES by Näckrosparken, where
Petra Andersson works, is usually full of industrious students and colleagues hurrying along corridors. Now, the building is empty and abandoned. – Even though I didn’t run into my own students and colleagues in the corridor, they still gave me the impression that other people are going about things in much the same way as I am, and that we are all in this together – it is a joint effort. The realisation that all of us, not just at the Faculty of Humanities but in society as a whole, are important to one another has become
