Paul Tillichs Kairosbegriff und die Krise des westlichen Denkens: Individualismus, (Menschen-)Rechte und Freiheit

This article reconstructs Tillich's kairos as a change of perspectives, as a 'crisis of thinking': not only the particular historical events matter, but also the way they are (re-)conceptualized. Covid-19 is a crisis in this sense: it shows that our Western ways of thinking have led into a crisis. We overemphasize science at the cost of practical wisdom. The article shows how detrimental this emphasis was for the politics on Covid-19 in the Netherlands and how many lives could have been saved if we had applied more phronesis. Also, the Covid-19 crisis shows that we overemphasize and misinterpret notions that are crucial for our Western ways of thinking, namely individualism, (human) rights and freedom.