Covid-19 How to recover the breath?

Abstract

This article offers a philosophical commentary on the pandemic as an experience of “breathlessness” that reshapes political, social, and symbolic life. Starting from the war-like rhetoric adopted by governments and the suspension of liberties and mobility, it argues that COVID-19 should not be interpreted solely through a public-health lens, but also as an event that exposes the fragility of contemporary existence and calls for a form of reflective withdrawal attentive to what the world discloses. The conceptual thread is built around the etymology of atmen (to breathe) and its affinity with ātman, framing breath as a link between body, consciousness, and an originary totality (Brahman / “Being”). From this standpoint, global deceleration appears as a recovery of the universal ātman’s “breath” and as an opportunity to reconsider our relationship to technique, speed, and consumption. Against the standard solutions – a vaccine, mass immunity, or a radical transformation of our way of life – the text emphasizes the third as the only genuinely decisive path: an ecosophical and affective reorientation toward a broader attunement with others and with multiple modes of being.