Draft:Petar Bojanić

Petar Bojanić (born 19 February 1964) is a philosopher known for his extensive work in political philosophy, social ontology, and the philosophy of violence. He is a research professor at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (IFDT) of the University of Belgrade and the President of the Regional Network of Centers for Advanced Studies in Southeast Europe (RECAS), under the Southeast European and Western Balkans Rectors' Forum.

Biography

Petar Bojanić completed his undergraduate studies and MA studies with the thesis "Figures of Combat" at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade under the mentorship of Praxis philosopher Miladin Životić. A recipient of a French government scholarship, Bojanić continued his studies in 1996 at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, where he wrote his second Master's thesis titled "The Figure of Peace in Kant, Levinas, and Jünger," under the mentorship of Jacques Derrida. He earned his PhD at the University of Paris X (Nanterre) in 2003 with a dissertation, "(The Last) War and the Institution of Philosophy," under a committee composed of Étienne Balibar, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Derrida, and Gérard Bensussan.

Bojanić served as the director of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade for two terms (2011–2019). He is the director of the Institute for Democratic Engagement of Southeast Europe (IDESE), where he heads the Center for Ethics, Law, and Applied Philosophy (CELAP). He is also the founder and director of the Center for Advanced Studies of Southeast Europe in Rijeka (CAS SEE), an institution established to restore regional academic cooperation, disrupted by the Yugoslav Wars.

He joined The New Institute in the academic year 2024/25 as Chair of the program Bitter Victory: Is Victory Possible in the 21st Century? He is a Professor of Philosophy at The European Graduate School, Division of Philosophy, Art & Critical Thought. He currently teaches at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka and the International University College of Turin. He has been a visiting professor at several universities, including Cornell University, Aberdeen University, the Sorbonne, Bologna University, Torino University, Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg, and others. He was a Senior Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Recht als Kultur in Bonn and Birkbeck, University of London. He is also the editor-in-chief of Khōrein: Journal for Architecture and Philosophy.

Work

The main areas of Bojanić's research are political philosophy including the theory of institution and collective action, violence and ethics of war, Jewish political tradition, and the philosophy of architecture. Over time, Bojanić's work has increasingly shifted from deconstruction toward social ontology and dialogue with contemporary philosophical trends, such as the so-called "new realism" and the theory of documentality. He works on the concept of the project and projective acts. He is involved in numerous interdisciplinary projects, bridging philosophy and contemporary political concerns, with a focus on the dynamics of change, institutions and violence.

Violence, War and Messianism

Bojanić's research explores the nature of violence within modern societies, focusing on its relationship within the group, sovereignty, and democracy. Bojanić engages with thinkers such as Hannah Arendt and Carl Schmitt to examine how violence is institutionalized and justified by states, especially in the context of maintaining sovereignty and order. In Violence and Messianism, Bojanić explores the intersection of violence, politics, and messianic thought, particularly within Jewish philosophy and 20th-century conflicts. He examines how messianic ideas, which often propose radical change or redemption, interact with the realities of political violence and war. Bojanić engages with thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas, analyzing how messianic expectations can inspire resistance against oppressive systems, but also how they may lead to the justification of extreme violence. He is concerned with paradoxical questions, such as whether peace can be created through war or whether revolution can be able to eliminate violence through violence. From this point of view, he also raises the question of the sense in which it is possible to win and make peace today. Providing an important contribution to the discussion on terrorism and the relationship between religion and violence, his work reflects on the tension between the desire for utopian transformation and the violent means sometimes employed to achieve it, questioning whether such violence can ever be ethically reconciled with messianic hope. Bojanić also explores how Russian Orthodox teachings influence the justification and conduct of war, addressing the moral complexities and contradictions inherent in these ethical traditions.

Institution, Counter-Institution, Engaged Acts, and Provocation

Petar Bojanić's work on institutions and engagement, particularly as explored in his book In-Statuere: Figures of Institutional Building, examines the formation and transformation of institutions through acts of engagement. Bojanić claims that institutions are not static but are continually shaped by collective, engaged acts that hold both constructive and critical potential. These acts are inherently projective, meaning they seek to create new structures or challenge existing ones. Moreover, his work reconsiders the concept of counter-institution, invoking the definitions of the term given by Henri de Saint-Simon, Jacques Derrida and René Loureau. Departing from the ambiguous semantics of the word counter and the specific conceptual architecture it implies, Bojanić shows how contre institution actively deconstructs established institutional frameworks, transforming or subverting them to create space for new modes of governance or social order – ones that are more just, hospitable, democratic, critical and non-violent. As the contemporary paradigm of counter-institution, Bojanić proposes the institutional and documentational construction of Europe.

Petar Bojanić's stance on social engagement centers on the idea that collective, engaged acts are essential for the formation and transformation of institutions. Bojanić emphasizes that social and philosophical communities are built through active participation and commitment to shared goals. Engaged acts, conducted with others, create a burden and mobilize those not even present, institutional non-members. They are also constitutive for the introduction of new norms within the community. An institution is impossible if there are no experiments or a universal solution to a general problem, one that affects everybody. There can be no institution without the organization of joint resistance, and a project of counter-institution. Bojanić's approach to social engagement links philosophical inquiry with real-world practices, underscoring the importance of action in shaping societal change. In his Provocatio: Vocative, Ius, Revolution, Bojanić examines the ancient Roman institution of ius provocationis: namely, Provoco allowed an accused to appeal to the people thus engaging them (provocatio ad populum) to stop the execution of punishment, pending public reevaluation. In a deconstructive tone, Bojanić explores the various dimensions, including contradictory ones, of the term provocatio.

Architecture and Philosophy

Petar Bojanić's work on architecture and philosophy integrates the conceptual foundation of space and institutional formation, emphasizing how architectural projects are deeply philosophical acts. He explores how architectural design not only shapes physical spaces but also defines the social and institutional structures that operate within them. His research connects architecture with broader questions of power, justice, and human agency, viewing the act of designing a building as a projective act with ethical and political implications. He investigates how architectural concepts reflect philosophical thought and how novelty or newness occurs in the encounter of architecture and philosophy, particularly in relation to institutions, proposing that the physical structure of a building influences social order and governance. This is reflected in his work as editor-in-chief of Khōrein, a journal for topics in the overlap of architecture and philosophy.

Works

Books

• The Gesture, with V. Cesarone (2023). ISBN: 978-8869774195
• In-Statuere: Figures of Institutional Building, Trans. into English by E. Djordjevic (2022). ISBN: 978-3-465-04604-2
• Projekt i projektne radnje: prilozi arhitektonsko-filozofskom rečniku [Project and Project Actions. Contributions to the Architectural-Philosophical Dictionary] (2020). ISBN: 978-86-80484-49-5
• O institucionalnom delovanju: kako je moguće ispravno raditi, pisati, hodati, disati, živeti zajedno? [On Institutional Action: How Is It Possible to Properly Work, Write, Walk, Breathe, Live Together?] (2016). ISBN: 978-86-6263-137-4
• Violenza e Messianismo, Trans. into Italian by G. Petrarca (2014) ISBN 978-88-5752-233-3; Transl. into French as Violence et messianisme by I. Krtolica (2015) ISBN: 978-88-5752-920-2; Trans. into Russian by Olga Volček (2017) ISBN: 978-5-7584-0227-6; Trans. into English by E. Djordjevic as Violence and Messianism: Jewish Philosophy and the Great Conflicts of the 20th Century (2018) ISBN: 978-1-138-74359-5.; Trans. into Spanish by R. Navarrete Alonso (2021) ISBN: 978-84-9879-841-8; Trans. into Hungarian by V. Radicz (2022) ISBN: 978-86-323-1196-1; Trans. into Portuguese by G. Rezende (2024) ISBN: 978-6553961708
• Sila i oblici rata: heroj, mesija, revolucionar, nostalgičar, gusar... [Force and Forms of War: Hero, Messiah, Revolutionary, Nostalgic, Pirate] (2012). ISBN: 978-86-7543-254-8
• Homeopatije: horror autotoxicus. O nasilju i hipohondriji: Kant, Hegel, Rosenzweig, Levinas, Derrida [Homeopathy: Horror Autotoxicus. On Violence and Hypochondria: Kant, Hegel, Rosenzweig, Levinas, Derrida,] (2009). ISBN: 978-86-519-0325-3
• Granica, znanje, žrtvovanje: o poslednjem ratu [Frontier, Knowledge, Sacrifice: On the Final War] (2009). ISBN: 978-86-6081-020-7
• Provokacije. Provocatio: vokativ, ius, revolucija (2008). ISBN: 978-86-7549-862-9; Trans. into Italian by E. Copetti (2021) ISBN: 978-88-5758-207-8; Transl. into Russian by V. Stoyanovich and V. Bereznyak (2022) ISBN: 978-5-7584-0660-1
• Nasilje, figure suverenosti [Violence, The Figures of Sovereignty] (2007). ISBN: 978-86-82417-17-0
• Prijatelj – Neprijatelj: Carl Schmitt i Jacques Derrida [Friend and Enemy: Jacques Derrida and Carl Schmitt] (1995). ISBN: 86-7047-225-2

Selected edited works

• Этика войны в странах православной культуры (2022) [The Ethics of War in the Countries of Orthodox Culture]. ISBN: 978-5-93615-320-4
• The Star for Beginners: Introductions to the Magnum Opus of Franz Rosenzweig (2021), with M. Brasser and F. Paolo Ciglia. ISBN: 978-1-914481-08-6
• Institutions in Action. The Nature and the Role of Institutions in the Real World (2020) with T. Andina. ISBN: 978-3-030-32617-3
• "What Is the Critique of Violence Now?", Critical Times, Durham, NC, Vol. 2, No. 2, with P. Fenves and M. Ty. ISSN: 2641-0478
• Peter Eisenman. In Dialogue with Architects and Philosophers (2017) with V. Djokic. ISBN: 9788869770388

Selected articles

• "ʻUnjust Enemyʼ or ʻMonster Dilemmaʼ Revisited. On the Conditions and the Paradox of a Theological Fiction", Philosophy and Society, Belgrade, Vol. 33, No. 4 (2022): 949–960.
• "On the Temporality of the Project", Innovation in Practice in Theory, eds. Caterina Barioglio et al., ORO Editions, Novato, CA, 2022: 2–13.
• "What Is ʻVictoryʼ in the Orthodox Christian Ethics of War?", Labyrinth, Vienna, Vol. 23, No. 2 (2021): 137–152.
• "What Is an Act of Engagement? Between the Social, Collegial and Institutional Protocols", Institutions in Action: The Nature and the Role of Institutions in the Real World, eds. T. Andina & P. Bojanić, Springer, Berlin, 2020: 113–128.
• "ʽLeben und Gewaltʼ or ʽGewalt und Lebenʼ. Paragraph 18 of W. Benjamin's ʽToward the Critique of Violenceʼ", in Critical Times, "What Is the Critique of Violence Now?", eds. Peter Fenves, Michelle Ty & P. Bojanić, Critical Times, Durkham, NC, No. 2 (2019): 320–329.
• "La ʽdisciplinaʼ como categoría y la ʽdisciplina institucionalʼ", Isegoría, Madrid, No. 61 (2019): 543–558.
• "The Acts of Project(ion) / Project Acts or Projacts", Rivista di Estetica, Torino, Vol. 71, No. 2 (2019): 92–100.
• "Что такое и кто такое ʻMы'? Heidegger и реконструкция понятия", Вопросы философии, Москва, 69, No. 6 (2016): 46–56.
• "Sovereignty and the Origins of War: Leibniz versus Bodin", CR: The New Centennial Review, Michigan State University, Vol. 13, No. 1 (2013): 93–115.
• "Von einer Analogie zur Souveränität zu Attributen der Gewalt", Brigitta Keintzel und Burkhard Liebsch (Hrsg.), Hegel und Levinas: Kreuzungen, Brüche, Uberschreitungen, Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg – München, 2010: 145–170.
• Sur la raison de la guerre (Kriegsgrund)", Les Etudes philosophiques, Paris, Vol. 89, No. 2 (2009): 51–61.

External links

• IFDT page https://ifdt.bg.ac.rs/dt_team/bojanic-petar/?lang=en
• RECAS page https://recas.info/coordinating-board/
• CAS SEE page https://cas.uniri.hr/directors/
• IDESE page https://idese.community/index.php/005-people/
• KHŌREIN page https://khorein.ifdt.bg.ac.rs/index.php/ch/about/editorialTeam
• IUC of Turin page https://www.iuctorino.org/faculty-researchers?pgid=lzi8bet01-1b3b37ff-a769-4f0c-905f-45f2978d54cc
• EGS page https://pact.egs.edu/biography/petar-bojanic/
• THE NEW INSTITUTE page https://thenew.institute/en/people/petar-bojanic