Volume 64, Issue 4, Fall 2020
Philosophy in a Time of Pandemic
James Martel
Pages 877-881
The Magic of Matter
Bodies, Together and Apart in a Time of Pandemic
I look at what Walter Benjamin calls the “magic of matter,” a silent form of communication between material objects, including our bodies. This communion exists even when bodies are separated as they are during the pandemic and becomes especially sensible to us when the physical presence of others is removed.