Solitude: A Philosophical Encounter

This work, asking, "What is solitude?", draws upon a corpus of literary reflections on the subject - Lao Tze, Sappho, Plotinus, Seneca, Augustine, Petrarch, Montaigne, Goethe and others. It concludes that both solitude and encounter are primary modes of human experience, and equally essential. What is the proper place of solitude in human existence? Some philosophers have claimed that solitude is our truest, most ultimate metaphysically deepest state of being. Others have maintained the contrary view, that it is in encounter that we most truly find ourselves. In Koch's "Solitude", both solitude and encounter emerge as primary modes of human experience, equally essential for human completion. This work draws upon a vast corpus of literary reflections on solitude, especially Lao Tze, Sappho, Plotinus, Seneca, Augustine, Petrarch, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Montaigne, Goethe, Wordsworth, Shelley, Cowper, Hugo, Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson, Whitman, Proust, Lawrence, Rilke, Byrd, Stevens, Eisley, Tillich, Woolf and Sarton.