The Importance of Touch

We have five senses but there is something special about touch. It is the most intimate and being deprived of it usually means a kind of isolation and loneliness that could destroy the strongest of people. The art that surrounds it from Michelangelo’s Adam touching God to photos of us hugging our loved ones speak to us in ways that no other art does. On this episode we talk about touch, it’s meaning in our lives and the symbolism that surrounds it. Richard Kearney holds the Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College. He is the author of over 24 books on European philosophy and literature (including two novels and a volume of poetry) and has edited or co-edited 21 more. Today we visit with him about his book Touch: Recovering our Most Vital Sense.