TO ARRIVE WHERE WE STARTED

A hope for community.

In his densely argued debut book, philosopher Corbin draws on cultural anthropology, cognitive science, economic history, literature, and philosophy to explore themes of belonging, loneliness, and alienation. Raised by Pentecostal Christians, Corbin in his early 20s felt his faith unraveling, making “the specter of spiritual homelessness to loom ever larger.” He sees this spiritual homelessness endemic in contemporary society, where chronic loneliness seems widespread. The drive to accumulate wealth—what he calls “ownerism”—is the cause, characterized as it is by “selfishness, relentless competition, separation from nature, materialism,” and a decided lack of social solidarity. But ownerism, he argues, is driven by “misguided attempts at homecoming.” Corbin maintains that culture requires community, “the constant sharing of minds” through which “a workable sense of the world can be constructed, and preserved.” A salient quality of community is friendship, which he takes pains to define: Friends, he asserts, are necessary to enable each individual to interpret realities, “to understand them as parts of a greater whole,” and to imbue them with “a richness and depth of meaning.” He contrasts our atomized society with cultures that “begin with an explicit and consequential awareness of our profound interconnectedness” to one another, nature, and deep, spiritual sources. Notable among such cultures are Native American tribes, such as the Lakota, whose “metaphysic of cosmic belonging comes with an ethic of universal reciprocity and care.” Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates; Rilke, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche; Hannah Arendt, T.S. Eliot, and Simone Weil are some of the thinkers contributing to Corbin’s analysis of our modern dilemma. Through our “humble, careful, courageous attention,” he is cautiously optimistic that radical change can occur, laying the groundwork for a humane culture of common good.

An erudite analysis of contemporary angst.