'Dancing on the Edge of the Abyss', by Teresa Toldy

Formal lecture given on the 21st of October 2022 by Teresa Toldy, in the capacity of keynote speaker, and hosted by José Manuel Beato during the 2nd IEF International Colloquium ROADS TO CARE, held at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra between October 19 and 21, 2022, organized by the R&D Unit IEF - Institute for Philosophical Studies, funded by the FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education of the Government of the Portuguese Republic, under the UIDB/00010/2020 project. Abstract: Kristen Dunphy’s presentation of TV series “Wakefield” (2020) includes a sentence decisive for my presentation: “There’s a fine line between sanity and madness”. Every and each chapter of this series starts with a psych nurse standing at the edge of an abyss in the Australian Blue Mountains. Actually, the psych ward where he works is near to that abyss. Sanity and madness are presented as something that goes far beyond a simple clinic situation: they may be considered almost as a symbol of a vulnerability that is common to every and each human being: we are all at the edge of an abyss – the abyss of mortality. And yet, at the same time, the notion that, even when you have to take care of someone, you are also hit by your own fragility results in an interpretation of human existence as a complex web of caring and being cared. Our common vulnerability may lead human beings to be drawn into the abyss or to dance on the edge of it, even if that dance is precarious. My presentation will focus on the awareness of our common vulnerability as the ground to the construction of an ethics of care. Bionote: Teresa Maria Leal de Assunção Martinho Toldy, PhD in Theology (feminist theology) at the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen (Frankfurt/Germany), Master in Theology (Catholic University, Lisbon) and 1st grade in Theology at the same University. Postdoctorate in CES. Full Professor at Fernando Pessoa University. Teaches in the field of Ethics. Researcher at CES (Thematic Line: Democracy, Justice and Human Rights). Co-coordinator of GT-POLICREDOS together with Júlia Garraio and Luciane Lucas Santos and co-coordinator of GPS, with Ana Cristina Santos e Madalena Duarte. Former Vice-Chair of the Portuguese Association on Women's Studies (2009-2014). Member of the Editorial Board of the ESWTR Studies in Religion and member of ESWTR. Fields of specialization: religion; feminist studies. Other fields of interest: Ethics. Publishes in the fields of religion, gender, and feminist studies.