ABSTRACT
This chapter claims that genuine peace is realized within a culture of peacefulness. It defines 'peacefulness' as a second-order resource to cope with human vulnerability in social situations and as a social situation characterized by the stakeholders' readiness and capability to deal with questions of conflict and coordination in a way that preserves Co-Being. The chapter tries to show that a culture of peacefulness can only be realized on the basis of the recognition of our human vulnerability. Recognizing a person's own vulnerability with its four dimensions will instil a sense of dependence, a sense of what it means to be a zoon politicón, a social and political being in need of community. One of the dimensions of vulnerability is the contingency of the word. The recognition of vulnerability is a door that would allow the proper shaping of our imagination enabling peace.
