Introducing Issue 158 of Ettela'at-e Hekmat va Ma'refat

If we cannot say that the most important issue in society is the relationships individuals establish with one another, it is undoubtedly one of the most fundamental concerns of any community—the nature and type of relationships under which people's identities are formed. Understanding these relationships depends on a precise understanding of the

Loneliness is an issue with a vast scope, and every person who partakes of existence inevitably experiences it. There are countless moments in our lives when we bury our heads in our hands from sheer loneliness. The question that arises here is whether loneliness is inherently a positive and constructive thing or a grievous suffering for which we must devise a way out. Loneliness has broad dimensions that, in addition to psychologists and sociologists, have occupied the minds of many philosophers. In this special issue, we have sought to scrutinize the various dimensions of loneliness from the perspective of some philosophers and psychologists. To this end, we organized a roundtable with the participation of Dr. Mohammad Reza Sargolzaei, psychiatrist; Dr. Hossein Mahmoudi, lecturer and researcher in the philosophy of religion; and Dr. Mahmoud Moghaddasi, lecturer, translator, and researcher in philosophy.

If we cannot say that the most important issue in society is the relationships that individuals establish with one another, undoubtedly one of the most fundamental concerns of any society is the nature and type of relationships under which individuals' identities are formed. Understanding these relationships depends on a precise understanding of the "self" and the "other." And it is in the relationship between the self and the other that the issue of loneliness emerges. In the problem of loneliness, the individual's relationship with the "other" gains importance; therefore, some of the articles in this issue are dedicated to the "other" and the individual's relationship with the "other." There have been different and sometimes conflicting views of the other. On the one hand, Levinas believes the other is a perfect mirror of the Lord, and on the other hand, Sartre calls the other hell and considers the other's gaze as depriving us of our individual freedom; because from his perspective, human relationships are formed based on conflict and are therefore doomed to failure. The human connection with the other in Sartre's philosophy is highlighted in three areas: the individual's relationship with their parents, the romantic relationship based on sexual relations, and the human relationship with God; Sartre considered all these relationships to be manifestations of self-deception and deemed them all doomed to failure. In the article "The Other in Sartre's Thought," an attempt has been made to examine the presence of the other with regard to the book Being and Nothingness and his plays.

In the article "The Self-Other Relation in the Ethics and Autobiography of Simone de Beauvoir," Ursula Tidd addresses the importance of the other for de Beauvoir and that de Beauvoir's works are in a way a translation of this sentence by Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov: "Each of us is responsible for everything and for all humanity." De Beauvoir advises us to recognize our boundless responsibility towards the other. In the discussion of the self-other relationship in Pyrrhus and Cineas, Simone de Beauvoir's first philosophical essay published in 1944, unlike Sartre, who focused on the conflictual aspects of self-other relations, reciprocity is emphasized.

In the article "Marcel's Philosophy of Relative Otherness," Treanor attempts, by analyzing Marcel's philosophy, to address how Marcel's relative otherness can overcome the concerns that led postmodern philosophers to ideas of absolute otherness. The concerns of philosophies of absolute otherness can be summarized in two points. One is the ethical concern, which, by describing the other in absolute terms, tries to preserve the other's uniqueness and call the I to an infinite responsibility. The other concern is epistemological, which, by describing otherness in absolute terms, tries to show the limitations of human knowledge, which is always incomplete, imperfect, contextual, and from a particular perspective.

Loneliness has various types. In the article "Deep Loneliness," Ira J. Cohen first provides a definition of loneliness and then, relying on a scientific perspective, attempts to distinguish the different types of this kind of loneliness based on the similarities and differences in their origins and methods, and to show the function of each. In this process, he divides loneliness by cause into three categories: religious solitude, artistic solitude, and personal solitude. These three types of deep loneliness do not share many commonalities; however, all three rely on similar procedures to prevent psychological collapse.

In the article "Unimaginable Loneliness," by challenging the linguistic concept of the word loneliness in the "successful aging" model of today's Danish society, Mikkelsen seeks to show to what extent the concept of loneliness is underrepresented in today's language, and therefore the implementation of such models may face failure.

The loneliness of individuals differs from one another. People are fundamentally alone in their understanding and experience of the world, for they have unique experiences of the world. The lonely and the non-lonely live in two different worlds. The question is whether mingling with people diminishes the feeling of loneliness, or whether this very interaction comes with certain costs. David Foster Wallace says: People who feel lonely are those who are not willing to pay the cost of mingling with others.

The greater the trust in the "other," the less the feeling of loneliness. The foundation of trusting the "other" is finding similarity. And trust is something hard-won. For in trusting, the individual exposes themselves to harm, and therefore exercises caution in establishing intimate relationships. The main goal of this research is to delve into human conditions and specifically human relationships. Relationships that, on one hand, lead to growth, advancement, and transcendence, and on the other hand, cause limitation and the deprivation of peace and security. The presence of the "other" is, on one hand, inescapable and gives the "self" a new definition and color, as if we find identity in the company of others; and on the other hand, this very "other" butchers and buries our identity and individuality.

Human relationships are an extremely complex matter, and understanding them is very hard-won. Understanding these relationships will aid in understanding each individual and the formed identity of individuals in society. Philosophical inquiries into the understanding of the human being often remain confined within theoretical frameworks and find little practical application. In this research, we have tried to provide an opportunity for the practical application of these concepts by linking philosophical discussions and psychotherapy. The merit of research of this kind is that while it remains immune to certain pragmatic prescriptions that lack theoretical depth, it does not become trapped in abstract and theoretical frameworks and will have a practical aspect.

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