The Examined Life

  • Andrew M. Geeves Macquarie University

Abstract


Two prisoners languish in adjacent cells, wishing to communicate with each other. They learn that the most effective way of doing so is by exchanging taps on the wall that divides their cells. The prisoners connect through the very partition that separates them. In this way, the philosopher Simone Weil writes of her thought experiment, “every separation is a link” (1952, p. 132).  

References

Andre, C. (2005). CUTS: Texts 1959-2004. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Epstein, M. (2004). Thoughts without a thinker. New York, NY: Basic Books.

McIlwain, D. (2009). Living palely and the rationality of a certain fullness of feeling. Artlink, 29, 15-24.

Phillips, A., & Taylor, B. (2009). On kindness. London, UK: Penguin.
Published
01-Dec-2015
How to Cite
Geeves, A. (2015). The Examined Life. Language and Psychoanalysis, 4(2), 64-71. https://doi.org/10.7565/landp.2015.010
Section
Book Reviews