The Penultimate Good

Original Title: La penúltima bondat

This essay subtly and surprisingly explores the human being’s “essential infinitives”: to live, to think, and to love. Starting out from the concept of “withdrawal from feeling”, this is an unquestionably valuable contribution to philosophy. Like fine rain, Esquirol’s distinctive style serenely but tenaciously soaks into the reader, setting out a revealing itinerary through pages devoted to shock, desire, creation, friendship, revolution, and gratitude.

From the very beginning he signals the heart of the matter: “Out here, on the fringes, genesis and degeneration, life and death, the human and the inhuman—since only the human can be inhuman—closeness and indifference. Out here, on the fringes, evil runs very deep but goodness runs still deeper. Out here, on the fringes, nothing makes more sense than shelter and generosity. Out here, on the fringes, we don’t just live, but we are capable of life”.

Discover other books from Josep Maria Esquirol

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  Human, More than Human

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  Intimate Resistance

English Sample Available

Details

Quaderns Crema

February 2018

1 pages

Essay

Translation Rights

Italian (Vita e pensiero)