Abstract:

This article provides a comprehensive philosophical and literary analysis of the phenomenon of moral stability in the individual amid an existential crisis of being, examined through Saramago’s novel Blindness. The study aims to identify the ethical mechanisms that preserve humanity when social institutions collapse and humanist values are lost.

The study is motivated by the need to examine the phenomenon of individual moral resistance – specifically, the individual’s capacity to sustain responsibility for the «Other» even in conditions of social crisis. In the contemporary Ukrainian context, where solidarity and human dignity carry particular weight, José Saramago’s novel deepens our understanding of the universal mechanisms that shape individual resilience. The analysis thus broadens the interdisciplinary dialogue among literary studies, philosophy, and ethics in grappling with states of social crisis.

The purpose of this article is to conduct a comprehensive philosophical and literary analysis of individual moral stability as a strategy for overcoming the existential crisis of society in José Saramago’s novel Blindness, and to articulate the ethical values embedded in the novel’s artistic model of societal crisis. The theoretical framework draws on the ideas of Stoic philosophy, existentialism, and contemporary social criticism, all of which approach the problem of moral choice through questions of inner freedom and responsibility. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of freedom under conditions of social crisis, where it becomes a burden demanding constant ethical choice.

The study establishes that the novel Blindness offers an artistic and philosophical depiction of an existential crisis of modern society, within which established social and administrative relations are radically dismantled. The collective loss of vision functions as a metaphor for the erosion of moral norms, individual responsibility, and social bonds, ultimately unravelling the social fabric. The article demonstrates that moral stability functions as a key mechanism of resistance to social degradation. It is not a passive form of adaptation but an active ethical stance, grounded in the individual’s capacity to sustain dignity, empathy, and responsibility for the «Other» even amid the dissolution of social bonds. In this context, moral stability emerges as a fundamental ontological condition for the preservation of humanity. These findings open avenues for further interdisciplinary research in social philosophy, ethics, and literary studies.

Keywords: moral stability, emotional indifference, ethical choice, dehumanization, existential crisis, axiological dimension.

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