Professor John Morgan, together with Dr Ana Zimmermann of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, has published ‘No One is an Island at a Time of Pandemic’ in a special issue of Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice on the social and cultural impact of COVID-19.
The article considers the fundamental ethical question of how responsibility for the care of others is accepted and maintained by those in retreat and outside. It draws philosophically from the concept of dialogue and the ethics of care; and writers such as John Donne, Daniel Defoe, and Albert Camus.
The authors conclude: ‘As John Donne reminded us: “No man is an island” and the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed us to a common threat, not only in terms of individual mortality but also in the potential consequences for the conduct and cohesion of human society.’