The beauty of vulnerability


The philosopher Martha Nussbaum writes in her wonderful book  The Fragility of Goodness. Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy about how to understand a central dilemma in the human condition: "the intermingling of what is ours and what belongs to the world, of ambition and vulnerability, of making and being made". 

Her view on this dilemma is a critique of a traditional emphasis in ethics on human beings as rational, autonomous and free, and a pointing to the beauty and importance of other aspects of human life. We are more than rational agents, we are deeply dependent vulnerable embodied beings: “a lot about us is messy, needy, uncontrolled, rooted in the dirt and standing helplessly in the rain”. Human beings are nature, a part of nature and not something entirely different. This is constituent of our beauty: "Part of the peculiar beauty of human excellence is its vulnerability. (...) Human excellence is something whose very nature it is to be in need, a growing thing in the world that could not be made invulnerable and keep its own peculiar fineness."

This perspective points to a caring approach to everything in us which are messy, vulnerable, wordless, uncontrollable and irrational. Our defences and the tensions in our bodies and minds which stop our free expression and hinder us, are not bad obstacles to be eliminated, but something which needs to be met with open and caring exploration. In a context of curiosity and care for whatever may arise and be alive in us and between us, there will emerge gateways opening us up to our real potential, and we will be shown our possibilities in ways which will be surprising and wonderful.   

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