Introduction

pp. 1-17

in: Lenart Škof, Breath of proximity, Berlin, Springer, 2015

Abstract

The aim of this book is to propose a new genealogy of breath, breathing and ethical gestures drawing from ancient Indian Vedic texts as well as the philosophies of Schelling, Feuerbach, Mead, Heidegger, Derrida, Lévinas and Irigaray. The book combines the approaches of a new cosmology with cross-cultural and feminist treatments of philosophical traditions and approaches beyond the Continental vs. Analytic or Judeo-Christian/Western vs. Eastern divides. The line of the argument extends from the plane of a new cosmology to the plane of the "material"/bodily/intersubjectivity, based on the cosmic/material element of air and the phenomenon/act of breathing. The key inspiration for the research in this book lies in new cosmology and new materialism and its main task lies in the intercultural, cross-cultural and cosmologico-ethical approach.