Gormley, Steven (2023) On Grief's Ethical Task. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 31 (5). pp. 613-632. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2023.2287651
Gormley, Steven (2023) On Grief's Ethical Task. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 31 (5). pp. 613-632. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2023.2287651
Gormley, Steven (2023) On Grief's Ethical Task. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 31 (5). pp. 613-632. DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2023.2287651
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to bring into view an ethical task that we face when grieving the loss of a loved one. That task is to see the independent reality of the lost other. I shall do so through a reading of C. S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed. I shall try to show that Lewis’s struggle to see the independent reality of his wife, Joy, provides an important, and troubling, insight into what it means for us to grieve well. Lewis’s account forces us to reflect on a key, but largely overlooked, assumption in contemporary philosophical accounts of grief, namely, that we do indeed see the independent reality of the lost other. Lewis’s account reveals that the struggle to see the lost other is at the same time a struggle to escape deeply-rooted aspects of the self.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | Attention; C.S. Lewis; Ethical Task; Grief; Object of grief; Reality of others |
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies, School of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 13 Dec 2023 14:44 |
Last Modified: | 06 Apr 2024 02:31 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/36970 |
Available files
Filename: On Grief s Ethical Task.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0