Institut Ramon LLull

We feel adrift in today’s high-tech world. We rush to and from without knowing whither we are bound. We feel stranded, stressed and nihilistic. That is why Josep Maria Esquirol resorts to a radical philosophical step — the quest for meaning. Here, his ambition is comparable with Peter Sloterdijk’s. Instead of pursuing totalitarian notions (including those of Science), Esquirol takes a critical look at the world around us, fleshing out a simple but powerful concept based on proximity. With engaging naturalness, he speaks of a dish of soup, the graffiti on a house wall in Turin, a sleepless night, or the use we make of language. In doing so, he weaves a simple yet compelling theory, namely: that we must resist if we are to shield our innermost being so that we can care for ourselves and help those at our side.