Shifting Theory in the Midst of a Pandemic

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic threatens much of the theory of human proxemics, and raises fundamental questions about human evolution and contemporary life. If we evolved in close contact with each other for thousands of years, does “social distance” contradict this fact? In today’s world, what should be local and what should be global? How much human suffering and death should be tolerated to “save the economy”? These and other questions are examined in this essay.