- 1Laboratory of Ethics, Legal Medicine and Public Health, 6th Floor, 45 rue des Saints Peres, 75006, Paris, France, aline.strebler@parisdescartes.fr.
Abstract
FROM VULNERABLE MAN TO CAPABLE MAN:
There are variations on vulnerability that are often based on opposing authorities. In his book Parcours de la reconnaissance, Paul Ricœur offers a reflection grounded in a survey from Aristotle to Levinas, with way stations in phenomenology, from Hegel to Husserl. He sketches the silhouette of capable man. In a reversal of thinking and positioning, weakness, which could be considered the hallmark of disability in all its forms, becomes a source of mutual wealth and an argument in favour of reciprocity and dialogue. Relying on clinical examples, we propose art as a mediator of the doctor-patient relationship, which in its present unique form forces us to question the dynamics of empathy. A. Strebler A FEW GRAMS OF GOLD IN AN INSECURE WORLD: Vulnerability has long gone hand in hand with precarity. It is disturbing in a world where all is 'comfort and beauty, calm and bliss.' Additionally, vulnerability is a type of wound and wounds are what knit the relationship between patient and care provider. Similarly disturbing is poverty: the pauper is "without": without work, without a home, without a legal residency permit, without money… Poverty is also a wound, and yet it may serve as a path to "truth," according to the philosopher Simone Weil. These two concepts, equally vulnerable, question man's finite nature, and may serve as an introduction to the art of living together. In the midst of this ambiguity, the word "art" stands out. It is a counter-power, a challenge to established authority and politico-economic forms of government; it is inessential, unclassifiable, ungraspable, unthinkable and cannot be evaluated. Art avenges the abyss of ambiguity. C. Valentin This article, composed of two core pieces, was written for a common project leading to the creation of a university degree at Paris 5 University (chaired by Pr. Hervé): Ethics, Aesthetics and the Dignity of the Individual. Together, they serve as a forum for reflection and dialogue in which scientists, artists, care workers, teachers, legal professionals interact… It is from this apparent melting pot that a true art of living together emerges.
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