How much suffering does a human being need to understand that what one has is everything? A philosophical-hermeneutical investigation into the value of simplicity

Abstract

This study examines, from a hermeneutic and phenomenological perspective, how experiences of rupture—especially extreme suffering—alter human perception of the value of the everyday. Based on testimonies such as that of Andor Stern, the only Brazilian survivor of Auschwitz, as seen in an interview with BBC News Brazil (STERN, 2020), and the philosophical reflections of authors such as Viktor Frankl, Gabriel Marcel, Romano Guardini, Edith Stein, and Josef Pieper, it argues that suffering does not introduce value into simple things, but rather removes distractions that prevented their correct understanding. The simple does not become greater after pain; it reveals itself. The thesis defended here maintains that only when ordinary benchmarks of stability are suspended does the subject become capable of perceiving that the sustenance of existence is found not in the extraordinary, but in the delicate fabric of small permanences.