Encontrarse

Why do some encounters give us the feeling that we are reborn? How can we be available to those who will intensify our lives and make us discover ourselves? The meeting -loving, friendly, professional- is significant in our lives. At the center of our existence, whose Latin etymology ex-sistere means "to get out of oneself", there is this movement towards the outside, this need to go towards others. The adventure is not exempt from risks, since it is, according to Pépin, "a clash with alterity: two beings come into contact, collide, and their trajectories change." From Plato to Christian Bobin, through Albert Cohen's Belle del Senor or Clint Eastwood's The Bridges of Madison, Charles Pépin turns to philosophers, novelists and filmmakers to reveal the power and grace of encounter. By analyzing some fertile loves or friendships -Picasso and Éluard, David Bowie and Lou Reed, Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet...-, he shows that every true encounter is, at the same time, a discovery of oneself and of the world. A healthy philosophy in these times of withdrawal into ourselves.