The reunion with the Otherness

The Philosophical Pathos of Astonishment and the Ironic Liberty

Abstract

This article attempts to reflect on the possibility of a reencounter with the experience of otherness, taking as a common thread the re-updating of the philosophical pathos of astonishment in the face of nature through the exercise of what we will call ironic liberty. For this purpose, we will study, first, the theoretical foundations of Humanism through the conceptual genealogy of the notion of "human dignity" from its Greek antecedents to its consolidation in the Renaissance era. Secondly, we will study the relationship between Humanism and modern science, the result of which was the development of physics, from the late Middle Ages to the scientific revolution of the 17th century, which ended up reifying nature. Finally, we will try to reflect on the possibility of a reunion with the otherness from the updating of the philosophical pathos of astonishment and the exercise of ironic liberty. We believe that the exercise of the virtues of ancient Greek philosophy updates a behavior scheme that allows facing the problems that contemporary civilization has brought with it, especially the care of nature.