Photo of Richard Kearney by Lee Pellegrini.
A lot has been lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. 最早的受害者是握手和拥抱, 因为人们被告知要保持身体距离以保证安全，而这种影响是深远的, according to Richard Kearney, holder of the Charles Seelig Chair of Philosophy.
“The more touch is impossible, 一个人越想要它，就越能意识到它对我们的存在是多么重要,” he said.
科尔尼甚至在大流行之前就已经在思考对触摸的渴望，他的新书， Touch: Recovering Our Most Vital Sense, offers a timely, clarion call to reemphasize the importance of touch, 这是我们人性的本质，也是通向幸福的管道.
According to Kearney, we are living in a digital age, 这是一个化身(肉体变成形象)的时代，它提供了联系，但不一定是亲密. In Touch, 他引用了美国退休人员协会(AARP)和信诺健康(Cigna Health)的太阳城官网，这些太阳城官网表明孤独感是一种流行病, particularly among millennials and Generation Z.
虽然科尔尼并不主张技术进步的倒退, as a philosopher and public intellectual, he asks, “当我们的文化90%数字化时，我们失去了什么? 这对人与人之间的交流意味着什么?”
这些都是科尔尼在想象哲学、柏拉图和欲望课上与学生讨论的问题.
“Skin is our largest organ,” said Kearney. “触觉交流——触摸和被触摸——绝对是基础，对我们的身心健康非常重要. But we have forgotten how important touch is. And pre-pandemic, we took touch for granted.”
科尔尼指出，由于触觉的互惠性，它与其他感官不同, or double sensation. “You can see without being seen, and hear without being heard, but you cannot touch without being touched,” he said.
In Touch, 科尔尼将触觉至上的观点追溯到亚里士多德，他说这是我们最哲学的感官，会导致脆弱, sensitivity, and empathy and to a more ethical human being. Plato argued for the primacy of sight over touch, notes Kearney, 一种最终在西方思想中盛行的以光为中心的观点.
Likewise, in the United States, writes Kearney, 希波克拉底的医学方法使阿斯克勒庇斯的方法退居次要地位, 药物和诊断被视为优于触觉和自然方法.
But touch is central to healing, Kearney said, noting that tender touch alleviates anxiety, lowers blood pressure, bolsters immunity, and aids sleep and digestion. In the book, Kearney explores the powerful role of touch in healing, palliative care, trauma recovery, and therapy.
“触觉交流——触摸和被触摸——绝对是基本的，对我们的身心健康非常重要. But we have forgotten how important touch is. And pre-pandemic, we took touch for granted.”
Touch 这也是科尔尼的家庭事务:他的妻子安妮和女儿西蒙娜和莎拉为这本书提供了插图, 他引用了触摸在他兄弟作品中的作用, Michael, a palliative care specialist, and Peter, a cardiac surgeon.
科尔尼关于触摸的思想超越了人与人之间的接触. 他写了抚摸动物的治疗力量，比如狗、马和海豚. 他还将触摸的概念扩展到地球本身, 无论是园艺的好处还是人类与自然更好接触的需要.
“The pandemic, along with the ecological crisis of climate change, is a double wake-up call for the need for touch,” he said.
In his conclusion, Kearney calls for mutually enhancing symbiosis, 数字和触觉的相互联系要求在两者之间取得适当的平衡, not choosing one over the other. “Ultimately, it is a matter of both/and [not either/or]. 很明显，为了在未来的世界中充分生活，我们既需要虚拟的想象力，也需要实际的行动.”
触摸的首要地位也是热情好客或向他人敞开心扉的关键组成部分——这是科尔尼第二本新书的主题. Radical Hospitality: From Thought to Action 是由科尔尼和获得博士学位的梅丽莎·菲茨帕特里克共同撰写的.D. 她于2019年从BC大学获得哲学学位，现在是卡罗尔管理学院门廊项目的实践助理教授.
In their book, 科尔尼和菲茨帕特里克展示了激进的好客是如何跨越国界发生的, literal or figurative, 在与他人的叙事交流中敞开心扉, a stranger or perhaps even an enemy. According to the authors, amidst the fears, dogmas, 对确定性和安全的需求将我们推向敌意, we also desire to wager with the unknown, leap into the unanticipated, and celebrate the new.
在一个边境焦虑、难民和移民增多的时代， Radical Hospitality 寻求培养一种开放和欢迎新声音和新理解的意愿.
In the first part of the book, 科尔尼探讨了待客之道的四个方面:语言, narrative, confessional, and carnal. In the second part of the book, 菲茨帕特里克考察了理论与实践之间的界限，以及好客与道德心理学之间的关系. In particular, she considers the philosophies of Kant, Levinas, and Arendt, 并借鉴了她自己在密西西比三角洲的经历.S.-Mexico border.
Radical Hospitality is a product of the Guestbook Project 这是科尔尼2009年在太阳城网赌平台发起的一项国际倡议，利用数字叙事和叙事交流作为弥合分歧、建立和平与和解的方式. 科尔尼认为，当对立双方的人交换故事时，会产生共鸣, unity, and mutual understanding.
Kearney, 谁在克罗埃西亚教一门名为BC的暑期课程:欧洲边界的和平与好客, 参与了北爱尔兰的和平倡议. 他将叙事交流作为实现和平的一种手段的模式得到了各国领导人的支持, most notably President of Ireland Michael Higgins, 他在最近的一篇专栏文章中引用了科尔尼和他的“叙事热情” The Guardian and in a national address late last year.
Radical Hospitality 将在4月24日的留言簿项目“数字和平教学法:叙事交换的风险?”研讨会上正式启动.”
Yet another recent Kearney-related publication is Imagination Now: A Richard Kearney Reader这本书是他过去三十年来最具开创性的作品的概要. Edited by M.E. Littlejohn, 《太阳城官网》精选了科尔尼关于想象哲学的著作, hermeneutics, philosophy of religion, ethics, psychology, practical philosophy, and politics. The volume concludes with a dialogue with Kearney, 谁反思他的旅程，并将他的思想应用于当今迫切关注的问题.
凯瑟琳·沙利文|大学传播| 2021年3月