Solitude

Solitude, also known as social withdrawal, is a state of seclusion or isolation, meaning lack of socialisation. Effects can be either positive or negative, depending on the situation. Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one may work, think, or rest without disturbance. It may be desired for the sake of privacy. Long-term solitude may stem from soured relationships, loss of loved ones, deliberate choice, infectious disease, mental disorders, neurological disorders such as circadian rhythm sleep disorder, or circumstances of employment or situation.

A distinction has been made between solitude and loneliness. In this sense, these two words refer, respectively, to the joy and the pain of being alone.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

^ Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now, 1963, chapter 1 "Loneliness and Solitude", section II: "Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of being alone. It has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."
^ Alexander Pope (31 December 2002). "Ode on Solitude". Archived from the original on 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2016-04-01.
^ Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1973, chapter 13 "Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government", p. 476: "As Epictetus sees it (Dissertationes, Book 3, ch. 13) the lonely man (eremos) finds himself surrounded by others with whom he cannot establish contact or to whose hostility he is exposed. The solitary man, on the contrary, is alone and therefore 'can be together with himself' since men have the capacity of 'talking with themselves.' In solitude, in other words, I am 'by myself,' together with my self, and therefore two-in-one, whereas in loneliness I am actually one, deserted by all others.", ISBN 0156701537. Solitude is a pivotal phenomenon in the thinking of existentialists, and reflections on it have been recently tied with pandemic lockdowns and self-isolation solitary confinement; for example as argued in: Nader El-Bizri, "Being in Solitary Quarantine", Studia UBB Philosophia, Vol. 65, No. 2 (2020): 7–32.
^ Matuszewski, Rafał (2021). Being Alone in Antiquity: Greco-Roman Ideas and Experiences of Misanthropy, Isolation and Solitude. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110758078.

[1] Paul Tillich, The Eternal Now, 1963, chapter 1 "Loneliness and Solitude", section II: "Our language has wisely sensed these two sides of being alone. It has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."

[2] Alexander Pope (31 December 2002). "Ode on Solitude". Archived from the original on 2016-04-21. Retrieved 2016-04-01.

[3] Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1973, chapter 13 "Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government", p. 476: "As Epictetus sees it (Dissertationes, Book 3, ch. 13) the lonely man (eremos) finds himself surrounded by others with whom he cannot establish contact or to whose hostility he is exposed. The solitary man, on the contrary, is alone and therefore 'can be together with himself' since men have the capacity of 'talking with themselves.' In solitude, in other words, I am 'by myself,' together with my self, and therefore two-in-one, whereas in loneliness I am actually one, deserted by all others.", ISBN 0156701537. Solitude is a pivotal phenomenon in the thinking of existentialists, and reflections on it have been recently tied with pandemic lockdowns and self-isolation solitary confinement; for example as argued in: Nader El-Bizri, "Being in Solitary Quarantine", Studia UBB Philosophia, Vol. 65, No. 2 (2020): 7–32.

[4] Matuszewski, Rafał (2021). Being Alone in Antiquity: Greco-Roman Ideas and Experiences of Misanthropy, Isolation and Solitude. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110758078.

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