Solitude: A Philosophical Encounter

What is the proper place of solitude in human existence? Some philosophers have claimed that solitude is our truest, most ultimate metaphysically deepest state of being. Others have maintained the contrary view, that it is in encounter that we most truly find ourselves. In Koch's "Solitude", both solitude and encounter emerge as primary modes of human experience, equally essential for human completion. This work draws upon a vast corpus of literary reflections on solitude, especially Lao Tze, Sappho, Plotinus, Seneca, Augustine, Petrarch, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Montaigne, Goethe, Wordsworth, Shelley, Cowper, Hugo, Emerson, Thoreau, Dickinson, Whitman, Proust, Lawrence, Rilke, Byrd, Stevens, Eisley, Tillich, Woolf and Sarton.