Illness, convalescence and asceticism: which supports a body. Notes on the care of Mother Earth, our common home

Abstract

The present article aims at contributing with reflections about the environmental crisis that affects all living beings, points towards our urgent necessity to rethink our modus vivendi, which is based on drawing away from displeasure, and reintroduces the Greek notion of askesis (ascesis). It starts from Encyclical Letter Laudato Si and articulates Pope Francisco’s thought, about the care we should have towards our common house, with Martin Heidegger’s philoso%cal criticism of modernity, and Friedrich Nietzsche’s reflections on Great Health, for us to think about a course of action in which ascesis may make sense to contemporary man.