“Social-Distancing” as a Chance to Revise the Paradoxes of Humanistic Philosophy: Personality Vs. Identity in Online Artistic Practices of the Pandemic

Abstract

In the article, the author investigates the correlations between the bounds of individual freedom and external constraints, aiming to view the present pandemic as an opportunity to study the boundaries of freedom. She supports the point of view, which understands the whole period since the end of the Middle Ages till nowadays as a period of constant liberation of human’s creative forces. Nevertheless, she agrees that the philosophy of humanism contains a paradox in itself. The more one affirms oneself, liberating his/her personality – the more he/she loses this inner self. This loss of self results in a feeling of individual isolation and powerlessness when a personality is dissolved in different behavioral patterns adopted from the outside. The author also pays much attention to distinguishing between the notions of personality and identity. She claims that despite the fact that these two concepts are very close to each other and are often used as synonyms, they still are of different nature, and there is a significant difference between them.Based on the understanding of freedom in Immanuel Kant’s philosophy and Erich Fromm’s approach, the author turns to sociological surveys of the artistic sphere in 2020 to show that despite the obvious loss caused by the pandemics, and the fact that art as a professional sphere suffers a deep crisis, the pandemic has unexpectedly become a stimulus for a search of a new combination of “personality” and “identity.” Several lockdowns in Europe and the US have suddenly become the stimuli for more personal freedom, which is found in art as a way to break the chain of causality.

Keywords

• freedom
• personality
• identity
• crisis
• pandemic
• humanism