Breathing Violence In Peace Out

Breathing: Violence In, Peace Out

An investigation into the long-term impact of transgenerational trauma and the possibilities for healing, this book explores the links between personal histories and world events and helps us to understand life’s dualities: violence and peace, self and other, stability and change, slavery and freedom. Author Ivana Milojevic asks How does violence change us? Is it possible to change the inner landscape of one’s thinking in the midst of pain and suffering? and If this is our past, how might our future be different? Oscillating between two voices, Milojevic journeys between the personal (“breathing in”), which describes her experience of violence; while the second academic voice (“breathing out”) tries to make sense of it. The rhythm created by inhaling and exhaling reflects not only what we take from the world but also what we give back to it. Breathing is an inquiry into alternative futures as Milojevic explores a range of possibilities, both for each of us personally, and for the world.

BREATHING

Breath of Proximity: Intersubjectivity, Ethics and Peace

This book offers an original contribution towards a new theory of intersubjectivity which places ethics of breath, hospitality and non-violence in the forefront. Emphasizing Indian philosophy and religion (Vedas and Upanishads) and related cross-cultural interpretations, it provides new intercultural interpretations of key Western concepts which traditionally were developed and followed in the vein of re-conceptualizations or revitalizations of Greek thought, as in Nietzsche and Heidegger, for example. The significance of the book lies in its establishment of a new platform for thinking philosophically about intersubjectivity, so as to nudge contemporary philosophy towards a more sensitive approach, which is needed in our times. Its originality lies in its innovative approach, which searches for the origin of ethical gestures (represented in respecting the breath/breathing) through the newly introduced concept of “mesocosm” as a space of a ritual, or a new ethical space of intersubjective encounters. The book also introduces the possibility of an original ethics based on breath. Intended for philosophers, feminists and others concerned with intercultural philosophy and comparative religion, the book will appeal to readers interested in contemporary ethical and political theories of peaceful conflict resolution and concepts of hospitality. A Breath of Hospitality will benefit all who seek a more sensitive approach in philosophy, including philosophy of religion, and often-neglected practical and educational layers of our everyday intersubjective relations.