A young philosopher re-evaluates the feeling of tenderness that is often cast aside, and rediscovers its strength on both a personal and political level.

When it is authentic, tenderness does not comply with easy definitions: it insinuates itself with delicate tenacity among the great civic virtues and the rhetoric of power; it is what we’re missing in order to finally live and feel in a communal world. For this reason, talking about it is a hard but beautiful feat. It is all the more important today, since our harsh reality has become undecipherable, narcissistic, violent yet sentimental at the same time.
From DeLillo to Pope Francis, Plato to Wislawa Szymborska, Max Weber to David Foster Wallace, Lucretius to Zizek, Enea to the migrant crisis, talking about tenderness means talking about love, the passing of time, and philosophy. It means talking about humanity, an interest in others, and the profound lightness that allows us to catch the deepest and most creative meanings behind our finiteness and our fragility.

pp.176

A cure for present melancholy.

Being a long way from what we wish for makes us sad. Sadness could, indeed, be described as the experience of feeling somewhat alien to ourselves, either because of our issues or because of external circumstances. Joy, on the other hand, is linked to fulfilment, to capitalising on a talent. This is illustrated by examples of characters and individuals in philosophy, literature, dance, art and the Bible. This essay offers a phenomenology of both emotions and reaches the conclusion that only joy can resist sadness because it fights against all weakening of life and passion for life; against all the powers that can separate us from our own power and our own talent. It is therefore a positive thought to help us come to terms with our times.

pp.176