Ksenija Atanasijević: beskompromisna filozofija beskompromisne životne priče
KSENIJA ATANASIJEVIĆ: THE UNCOMPROMISING PHILOSOPHY OF AN UNCOMPROMISING LIFE STORY

Author(s): Ivana Bašić
Subject(s): History, Philosophy, Gender Studies, Gender history
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: Ksenija Atanasijević; ethics of courage; autoethnography; feminism; humanism; pacifism
Summary/Abstract: Ksenija Atanasijević was the first and only female doctor of philosophy and assistant professor in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, a philosopher and highly socially engaged thinker. She is a specific phenomenon, especially in this part of the world, providing that her life story and her work are inseparable, since she wrote her philosophy and lived it as a daily practicing of free personality. Despite the repression, she remained faithful to her ideas about the meaning and value of human existence, presented not only in Philosophical Fragments, Aspects and Analyzes of the Philosophy of Humanism or the Meaning and Value of Existence, but also in a whole series of articles, dedi - cated to topics as important in her ti - mes as they are today – the position of women, women’s emancipation from classical era to modern times, the femi - nist movement, pacifism, critique of fascism and anti-Semitism, as well as rejecting the glorification of violence and war, defending humanism and emphasizing the need to establish direct links between ethics and politics. In this paper, we intersect Ksenija Atanasijević’s life story (including the socio- cultural circumstances in which it took place) with her philosophical and engaged texts, to show the extent to which her ideas correspond with the events of her personal life, and in what ways her philosophy and reality of life shaped one another. Ksenija Atanasijević’s philosophy could be read as an au - toethnography of courage, as significant then as it is today, when the issues of ethics, personal dignity and consistency in the public discourse are incre - asingly marginalized. In that sense, paying tribute to Ksenija Atanasijević, and not only to her work, but also her life, firmly rooted in her philosophical views, implies not only analysis of her texts and thoughts, but also leaving the ivory tower and publicly engaging oneself in changing the world, which she actually worked towards all her long and fruitful life.

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