News from Nowhere
Intro _ I want a connection that goes beyond exchange _ Jan Borg
Isolation _ Is Glorious Isolation Possible? _ Patrick Stokes
Connection _ Mortal Beings Who Are Not Alone _ Tom Chatfield
Comic _ Socrates Emergency _ Corey Moller
Limit _ Dunbar's number
Relationship _ If you're concerned about long-distance relationships _ Marina Benjamin
Consciousness _ Communion with all things non-human _ Antonia Case
Wisdom _ What is Reckless Patience in a Toxic Relationship? _ Mysha Cherry
Interview _ Social Connection, Why Humans Connect _ Nicholas A.
Christakis
Philosophy _ The Age of High-Speed ​​Debate _ Nigel Warburton
Culture _ Why Cosmotechnics is Needed in the Digital Age _ André Dao
Interview _ Adapting to the Changing Communication Landscape _ Kenneth Gergen
Sympathy _ Sadness Recognizes Sadness _ Mariana Alessandri
Classic _ Connected Action _ John Dewey
Interview _ Philosophy is no longer an imported discipline _ Ahn Gwang-bok
Knowledge and Life - What Name Do You Want to Be Called? - Hwang Jin-gyu
Space and _ The express bus that day that went 1 second slower _ Im and
Thinking in pictures _ Now is the time for a cosmic community _ Park Bona
Our Library
13 questions

There is no such thing as 'glorious isolation'
_ Human interdependence that philosophy has not focused on

As scenes of people enjoying life alone garner attention across various media, and technological connectivity allows for seamless exchanges without the need for face-to-face contact, I begin to worry about a future that is becoming increasingly individualized, isolated, and disconnected.
But philosophy professor Patrick Stokes, who opens this issue of The New Philosopher on the topic of 'connection', summarizes the concern with a single example.
The story of Henry David Thoreau, who lived alone on the shores of Walden Pond, living a self-sufficient life in harmony with nature, is already famous.
However, the blind spots and limitations of a “life alone” are revealed in the face of the stark fact that “once a week, his mother would bring him clean laundry and his sisters would bring him cake at the lakeside cabin where he wrote extolling the virtue of self-reliance.”

The power of self-reliance, of living one's own life without the help of others, of self-sufficiency, of living sufficiently without interaction or support from other groups, has certainly been considered a virtue in this world.
This is because if we depend on others, either materially or mentally, we believe that our fate and happiness will be determined by their actions and choices.
But “glorious isolation,” as the Canadian politician George Jules Foster put it in the 19th century, referring to Britain’s policy of avoiding permanent alliances, clearly has its limits.
Even the conglomerates who seem to own everything live off the products of someone else's labor and creativity, and even the famous doctors known as the Hand of God cannot operate on their own bodies.
No matter how isolated one may strive for a life, one cannot survive in this world free from the networks of names, languages, identities, and affiliations that others have given them.
For a long time, philosophers also developed their own philosophies, thinking of humans as independent atoms with free will and reason.
It is not concerned with the unchanging premise that animals cannot survive without connecting with other humans or with the rest of nature.
Moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre has made it clear that humans are fundamentally interdependent, no matter how thoroughly philosophy ignores it.
Although we have fully entered the digital age, human genes and brains must remain constantly connected to others, to bonds and contacts, and even to natural and non-natural objects.
"New Philosopher" suggests how diverse entities—people and people, technology and philosophy, past, present, and future—should relate to each other and live together to create a more just, better, and less fragmented world.

You can tout the virtues of self-sufficiency in the marketplace of ideas and ideologies, but if you suddenly collapse one day while standing in line at a store, you will realize that this virtue is false.
In those moments when life and death depend on the kindness of strangers, it becomes clear how much we depend on each other to survive.
(Page 23)


Social Connection: Why Do Humans Connect?
_ Human sociality engraved in genes

Nicholas A., whose research focuses on social networks and biosociology,
Professor Christakis of Yale University uses carbon bonds as an example to explain human social connections.
Even if they are the same carbon atoms, if you connect them in a certain way, you get a gorgeous diamond, but if you connect the same atoms in a different way, you get graphite, the raw material for pencils.
In other words, no matter what the original essence was, the result will be completely different depending on how it is combined.
Professor Christakis argues that human society is no different. Connecting a group of individuals in a certain way creates a wealthy and innovative society, but connecting the same individuals in a different way creates a poor, sick, and dark society.
In other words, connection is defined as 'an intangible bond that binds individuals together', and includes various human relationships and the characteristics derived from them.
He presented a new paradigm of social networks to both academia and the public, particularly by presenting the concept of the 'three-degree law of influence' through large-scale experimental data.
We think of humans as independent beings with free will who make their own choices and act, but in reality, we are beings with genetic characteristics that make us more susceptible to the influence of others' thoughts and the surrounding environment than anyone else.
This spread of influence extends not only to family and close acquaintances (level 1), but also to friends of friends (level 2), friends of friends of friends (level 3), and so on, showing that we are connected to strangers whose faces we do not even know.
Moreover, the direct and indirect transmission of knowledge and culture was also revealed through experimental results to be generally successful up to the third stage.
Of course, negative situations in relationships, such as loss, damage, lies, and violence, are also unavoidable.
When people are defrauded by someone, have their lives threatened, or are unintentionally infected with a virus or involved in a traffic accident, it may be better for them to choose to live on their own.
But we all know that's not the case.
“People form bonds with strangers who are not their relatives and cherish these friendships for a long time.
“Because the human body and mind have evolved to want to belong to a group.”


Philosophy is no longer an imported discipline.
- Interviews and philosophical essays by Korean philosophers and artists

《New Philosopher》 contains interviews and philosophical essays by Korean philosophers and artists, independent of the topic of the issue.
In this issue, we meet Ahn Gwang-bok, a mid-career philosophy writer and clinical philosopher who has published twenty-five philosophy books, and a rare teacher in Korea who teaches philosophy at a high school.
He is on his way to becoming a clinical philosopher who seeks to 'heal with philosophy' teenagers who are suffering from depression due to being buried in their studies, and the countless people who are unable to find a way out of their wounds and pain, moving away from difficult theoretical philosophy.
He says his goal is to become someone who can convey the rigorous and logical theories of famous philosophers to readers and the general public in a warm and easy-to-understand way, rather than approaching philosophy as an imported discipline that is difficult to approach. In doing so, he aims to achieve 'philosophy as a way of life.'

Along with an explanation of Louis Althusser's 'Thesis on Calling Names', we read philosopher Hwang Jin-gyu's article asking how he would like his name to be called.
He explains the ideology of calling, focusing not on what name is called, but on the relationship under which the name is called, and with what freedom and affection.
Musician and essayist Lim Yirang tells the story of confronting trauma from childhood—a trauma that, while seemingly insignificant to others, left a significant scar on her later life.
Artist Park Bona dreams of a world of universal community where humans, machines, and even non-humans, unite in solidarity with nature, breaking down barriers while experiencing a pet robot doll equipped with artificial intelligence.