This seminar will explore ideas of solitude and solitariness in a variety of manifestations, from ancient writings of religious ascetics to technologized forms of reclusion, from the desert monastics of ancient Egypt to the Parisian prowlers of fin-de-siecle Paris, from the sramana of pre-Vedic India to the urban shut-ins of modernity, from the self-abnegation of mystical philosophers to the lyrical dismantling of the self in the poetry of Romanticism, from philosophical misanthropy to biomedical "social distancing" – from hermits to hikikomori. We will draw mainly on perspectives from philosophy east and west, the history of religions, as well as literature, film, and other media, in order to better understand how solitude is deeply intertwined with our sense of being at once a part of the world and at the same time being apart from the world.