How Shall We Live Together?

Abstract

Living with and for others, without racism or ethnic discrimination in cultural and civilisational classification, is a task through which Claude Lévi-Strauss sought to realise the principle of cultural and civilisational fairness and to overcome the obstacles of historical classification according to all forms of exclusion that label so-called primitive peoples as savage, barbaric, and outside civilisation. Similarly, philosophising, as conceived by Spinoza, is a project of learning to live happily, yet it is also a matter of learning to live together; one of the most assured manifestations of philosophical insight is the capacity to preserve harmonious modes of life. Individuals in today’s world, in what may be termed “advanced modernity”, find themselves in a strange paradox: never before has life appeared so sacred. On the one hand, we protect and preserve it, taking care not to squander it; greater efforts than ever are made to keep death at bay. On the other hand, do we truly live at all? Our existence is becoming increasingly confined, isolated from the world, and rooted in seclusion. We are witnessing a pervasive individualism that now leads to the rejection of collective existence, with a noticeable inclination toward the virtualization of existence. This leads us to question the meaning of life (is it sufficient merely to remain alive for as long as possible, as if in a state of breath suspension?) and the human condition (do we truly wish to avoid living together? ).