Cabinet 36: Friendship

Cabinet 36: Friendship

The nature of friendship has been a subject of inquiry from the beginnings of the western philosophical tradition. Socrates considers the question of philia in one of Plato's earliest dialogues, declaring that his â€œpassion for friendsâ€ causes him to value them above even gold. Subsequent thinkers have continued the inquiry, yet friendship remains a phenomenon that â€œmay well be reckoned,â€ as Emerson wrote, â€œthe masterpiece of nature.â€ Cabinet issue 36, with its special section on friendship, features Svetlana Boym on Hannah Arendt's definition of friendship as freedom from â€œtotalitarianism for twoâ€; Ruben Gallo on Freud's school friend with whom he communicated mainly in Spanish; and Regine Basha on Sol Lewitt's exchange of gifts with other artists. Elsewhere in the issue: Paul La Farge on the color black; Kevin McCann on the life and work of schizophrenic author Louis Wolfson, the object of fascination for a generation of French intellectuals; Helen Polson on the fate of lost teeth; Bertell Ollman on his infamous board game Class Struggle; and an artist project by Zoe Bellof.

You might also like...