In this intriguing new book, Indian social theorist Ananta Kumar Giri issues a stirring call for scholars of contemporary social theory and practice to grapple with late modernity's most pressing social and political issues. Giri counterposes Western thought with Indian social theory in a work that ranges across an array of Indian texts and ideas, hitherto ignored by Western scholarship. Included, along with the mainstays of Indian intellectual thought like Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, are lesser known Indian social theorists, (...) economists, sociologists, and essayists who argue for transcendence of self-interest, social responsibility, and political renewal. Thoughtfully argued and lucidly written, this work offers the reader a genuine 'transdisciplinary' learning experience, going beyond European ethnocentrism to make social theory a truly global conversation. (shrink)

This book presents an innovative and novel approach to linguistic semantics, beginning with the idea that language can be described as a system for the expression of linguistic Meanings as particular surface forms or Texts.

Rasa, Dhvani and Rasa-Dhvani are the major critical terms in Sanskrit poetics that developed during the post-Vedic classical period. Rasa is used by a sage named Bharata to denote the aesthetic experience of a theatrical audience. But Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta intermedialize this experience by extending it to a reader of poetry. They argue that rasa is also generated by a linguistic potency called dhvani. Some critics like Bhoja also proposed generation of rasa by pictorial art, and further, some modern critics (...) propose to trace dhvani property in non-verbal arts such as dance and music pleading thereby that these non-verbal arts also generate rasa. The present essay examines these arguments and concludes that generation of rasa is confined to only the audio-visual and verbal arts such as the theatre and poetry, and, dhvani as a specific linguistic potency, is strictly confined to the verbal arts. Its intermedialization is a contradiction in terms. (shrink)

The book defines the concept of Semantic-Communicative Structure [= Sem-CommS]-a formal object that is imposed on the starting Semantic Structure [= SemS] of a sentence (under text synthesis) in order to turn the selected meaning into a linguistic message. The Sem-CommS is a system of eight logically independent oppositions: 1. Thematicity (Rheme vs. Theme), 2. Givenness (Given vs. Old), 3. Focalization (Focalized vs. Non-Focalized), 4. Perspective (Foregrounded vs. Backgrounded), 5. Emphasis (Emphasized vs. Non-Emphasized), 6. Presupposedness (Presupposed vs. Non-Presupposed), 7. Unitariness (...) (Unitary vs. Articulated), 8. Locutionality (Communicated vs. Signaled). The values of these oppositions mark particular subnetworks of the starting SemS and thus allow for the distinction between sentences such as (a) A man killed a dog vs. The dog was killed by a man, (b) John washed the window vs. It was John who washed the window or (c) It hurts! vs. Ouch! The proposed Sem-Comm-oppositions are conceived as an attempt at sharpening the well-known notions of Topic Comment, Focus, etc. Possible linguistic strategies for expressing the values of the Sem-Comm-oppositions in different languages are discussed at some length, with linguistic illustrations. (shrink)

In This Book The Author Have Tried To Present A Historical Study Of Vedic Interpretation Confines Ourselves To The Study Of These Various Parts Of The Vedic Literature As Some Interpretation Of The Vedic Samhita. The Author Observed The Vedic Myth, Rituals And Philosophy As Interpreted By Madhvacarya The Founder Of Dvaita School Of Vedanta.

The article examines the encounter in philosophy as a topic of philosophy, i.e., as a specificity of human existence and as a milieu of pursuing philosophy. Starting from the properties of encounter, which philosophical texts, primarily Martin Buber’s dialogic, recognize and distinguish as those that belong to it in the real world, the paper analyses the changes of encounters in a virtual environment. Among several different changes, two stand out: (1) the reduced awareness of the real being in itself and (...) (2) the impaired ability to be present for other. (shrink)

The purpose of this research was to know the description of hosters work profesionalism of children day care center at Yogyakarta. The research subjected 8 hosters who had work up to one year. The data was collected by Interview, test of child developmental knowledge, and observation. Hoster work profesionalism was measured from the understanding of child developmental knowledge, ability to apply their knowledge, ethics, and responsibility at worked. The result showed that hosters can understand about child developmental knowledge, good enough. (...) Hosters ability to apply their knowledge was good enough eventhough almost all of the hosters just gave care service to children and not maximally in applying their knowledge. Almost all of the hosters had good enough responsibility about all that happened in workplace. Almost all of hosters not too understand about profession ethics, their just use social norms and rules of their workplace. (shrink)

Microgames are rapidly gaining increased attention and are highly being considered because of the technology-based media that enhances students’ learning interests and educational activities. Therefore, this study aims to develop a new construct through confirmatory factor analysis, to comprehensively understand the factors influencing the use of microgames in mathematics class. Participants of the study were the secondary school teachers in West Java, Indonesia, which had a 1-year training in microgames development. We applied a quantitative approach to collect the data via (...) online questionnaires through google form. Structural Equation Modelling with AMOS software was used to analyze the proposed model. Empirical results confirmed the perceived easy to use and subjective norm influence relationship with teachers’ microgame usage behaviors and intentions. In this condition, SN was found to have the initial significant influence on behavioral intention, as attitude, BI, and facilitating conditions also correlated with the actual use of microgames. Furthermore, the largest influential factor was BI, with the results subsequently showing that TPACK had no significant influence on the actual use of microgames. This report is expected to help bridge the gap across several previous studies, as well as contribute to the explanation and prediction of the factors influencing the teachers’ mathematical utilization of the study’s program. Besides this, it also helps to increase the use of microgames in teaching and learning activities. (shrink)

The ethnic-Chinese business is often characterised by a central role of the family both in the structure of the firm and in its corporate culture. This has political, social as well as cultural reasons. The centrality of the family in business has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, it enables a fast, efficient and flexible process of decision-making. On the other hand, it often contradicts modern business professionalism. The younger generation of ethnic-Chinese business actors tend to preserve crucial (...) elements of such family-centred characteristics. Yet, globalisation drives them to transform their business style, lessening its dependence on family resources and adopting more-modern professional ideas. Changes in current political situation, religious-cultural trend, demography and education contribute to making possible the transformation. (shrink)

Focuses on the multidisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives of the concept of experience, and evaluates its cultural value as it is used in science, ...

The author has made a detailed study, more detailed, he rightly claims, than hitherto attempted, of the concept of mimesis in aesthetic thought and has devoted equal space to Greek and Sanskrit writers... Wilamowitz, the doyen of modern classical scholars, describes mimesis as a 'fatal word' 'rapped out' by Plato. But the present author has demonstrated with great cogency that the word was not 'rapped out' by Plato at all, and that the concept and the word are both as old (...) as Greek thought. He shows too, once again with considerable scholarship and perceptiveness, how Greek art was bound to be sensuous, unmystical and also 'formal' in the best sense of the term. In the four long chapters of the first part of his thesis the author gives at every step evidence of deep study and illuminating insight, and can claim originality both in approach and argument... The chapter on Aristotle contains one of the best discussions of mimesis I have read... the most striking portion of his thesis is his elucidation of poetic truth according to Aristotle. -/- -- Prof. S. C. Sengupta, Jadavpur University -/- The author provides a faithful rendering of both Greek and Indian ideas. The work is valuable for its expositions especially of the Indian theories of art. -/- -- V. K. Chari, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (JAAC), USA, Spring 1979 -/- ... A fairly exhaustive comparative study of the concept of mimesis in Greek and Indian aesthetics... wide ranging and at the same time well controlled acquaintance with this proliferating literature is revealed throughout... the co-relation of the Aristotelian linking-up of 'imitation' and 'completion' with Abhinavagupta's integration of imitation with completion is very suggestive and is a help towards the formulation of a universal aesthetic comprising body and soul, the immediate impact of Appearance and the slow revelation of Reality... (the author) has mastered the material and achieved a steady progression in argument so as to sustain the central thesis. -/- -- K. R. S. Iyengar, Professor of English and Vice-Chancellor, Andhra University -/- The book is a significant contribution towards understanding the essentials of Indian aesthetics apropos the Greek (and, through the Greek, the Western)... The author has surveyed the entire field in a masterly manner. His erudition and judgement are both commendable. -/- -- S. K. Ramachandra Rao, Deccan Herald (03.09.1978) -/- ...The author's views hold good even among modern critics including the ones known as 'the Chicago school' and experimental psychologists. -/- -- Indian and Foreign Review (August 1978) -/- The work is a valuable addition to the literature on aesthetics. -/- -- The Indian Express (12.03.1978) -/- The comparison is too smooth and sharply compartmentalized... The book is of great value to those who are interested in the comparative and historical evolution of a very important concept in aesthetics. -/- -- The Hindustan Times (31.12.1978) -/- The work is in two parts. The first part in four chapters examines the concept of imitation in Greek thought, and the second in three chapters explores the meaning of the term in Indian thought... the author offers a brilliant interpretation of Aristotle's theory in the fourth chapter (Pt. 1) which is the best one in the book... The work is a pioneering one and it repays a careful examination. It is probably the first of its kind and every student of aesthetics must read it. -/- -- Prof. P. S. Sastri, Nagpur Times . (shrink)

Our understanding of the human and the social, as well as our realization of these, are in need of fundamental transformations, as our present day use of these are deeply anthropocentric, Eurocentric and dualistic. Human development discourse looks at the human in an adjectival way, so does the social quality approach to the category of the social: neither reflects the profound rethinking both the categories have gone through even in the Western theoretical imagination. In this context, the present essay explores (...) the ways these two categories are being rethought in Western theoretical imagination and discusses the non-anthropocentric and post-anthropocentric conceptualization and realization of the human, which resonates with non-socio-centric and post-social conceptions of society. The essay also opens these two categories to cross-cultural and planetary conversations and on the way rethinks subjectivity, sovereignty, temporality and spatiality. It pleads for a foundational rethinking of human security and social quality and for creative intertwining between the two with visions and practices of practical spirituality. (shrink)

This book explores the dynamics of interaction between pragmatism and spirituality in the constitution and working of consciousness, freedom and solidarity. This book is cross-cultural and transdisciplinary in nature and brings critical and transformative perspectives from different philosophical and spiritual traditions of the world. It discusses the works of seminal thinkers such as William James, Rudolf Steiner, John Dewey, Swami Vivekananda, Martin Heidegger, Claude Levi-Strauss, Jordan Peterson, Slavos Zizek, Paul Valeri and O.V. Vijayan. It also explores dialogues between pragmatism and (...) other philosophical and intellectual traditions such as Semiotics, Saiva Siddhanta, Vedanta, Trika Shaivism and Tantra. It explores themes such as pragmatism and belief, evolution of consciousness and happiness, spiritual pragmatism and economics of solidarity, value levels democracy, the perforamtive as an aspect of spirituality and transformation of political theology from Kingdom of God to Gardens of God. (shrink)

Criticism of Qur'an hermeneutics method by Averroës, an Islamic philosopher.

We examine the role of religiosity on the financing activities in both Islamic and conventional banks in Indonesian provinces by using five different measures of religiosity: number of Islamic schools, hajj application, number of Islamic seminary schools, number of Mosques, and number of certified halal products. Based on regression analysis, the results show that both Islamic and conventional banks provide more financing in religious provinces. Religiosity also helps in reducing the volume of non-performing financing. Our the results are still qualitatively (...) valid after taking into account endogeneity issue that emanates from omitted variables (i.e., unobservable beliefs, ideas, and attitudes), and possible reverse causality between religiosity and the total amount of financing at the province level. (shrink)

Human liberation has become an epochal challenge in today's world, requiring not only emancipation from oppressive structures but also from the oppressive self. This book seeks to rethink knowledge vis-à-vis familiar themes such as human interest, critical theory and cosmopolitanism.

Philosophy and anthropology have many, but largely unexplored, links and interrelationships. Historically, they have informed each other in subtle ways. This volume of original essays explores and enhances this relationship through anthropological engagement with philosophy and vice versa, the nature, sources and history of philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and the practical, methodological and theoretical implications of a dialogue between the two subjects. ‘Philosophy and Anthropology: Border Crossings and Transformations’ seeks to enrich both the humanities and the social sciences through its informative (...) and stimulating essays. (shrink)

This book analyses contemporary critiques of political economy and highlights the challenges to rethinking contemporary discourses and practices. It carries out a multi-pronged critical and transformative dialogue involving political economy, moral economy, moral sociology, moral anthropology, and spiritual ecology. The authors discuss diverse themes such as the relationship between consciousness and society, the dialogue between Karl Marx and Carl Gustav Jung, a critical sociology of morality and property relations, moral and political economy of the Indigenous peoples and a critique of (...) modern civilization, economic evaluation, as well as alternative traditions of thinking in Marx, Thoreau, Gandhi, J.C. Kumarappa, Rammanohar Lohia, B.R. Ambedkar and Jayaprakash Narain. A unique transdisciplinary text, the book brings together authors and approaches from both the Global North and South. It will be indispensable to students, research scholars and teachers of humanities and social sciences in such fields as economics, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies and development studies. (shrink)

In a world becoming increasingly sensitive to the failings of narrow empiricism this book offers insights into creative and meaningful approaches to research. It explores ontological epistemology of participation as a new pathway of research as well as conceptualization of reality which goes beyond conventional methods such as participant observation and the familiar dualisms between qualitative and the quantitative and epistemology and ontology. Drawing on the editor's wide ranging network of creative scholars at work in the world of academia and (...) beyond Pathways of Creative Research: Towards a Festival of Dialogues brings together twenty-five insightful chapters each rich in insights into the role that creativity and dialogue play in the work researchers do. Drawing on both Western and Eastern approaches as part of a festival of dialogues, the book offers pathways of creative research that strives to understand the work of the non-dual in self, culture, society and the world. Pathways of Creative Research, the first volume in the trilogy of creative research which includes the subsequent volumes, Cultivating Pathways of Creative Research: New Horizons of Transformative Practice and Collaborative Imagination and Research as Realization: Science, Spirituality and Harmony, is not only a pioneering but also a monumental effort in our world of scholarship, thinking, practice and collaborative imagination which raises some of these vital and deeper questions of theory and practice and then overflows to an epochal and epic quest for rethinking and regenerating life, culture, society, polity and our fragile humanity. (shrink)

The paper discusses the complexity of spiritual quest and bordercrossing dialogues in India. It discusses the multiverse of engagement between Hindus and Christians and the plural streams of co-walking, contradictions and confrontations. It discusses the complex histories of encounters between Hindus and Christians. It discusses the inter-religious dialogues undertaken by religious leaders, reformers and common people from both the traditions.

Abstrak: Artikel ini menguraikan penggunaan konsep teologis “Trinitas sosial” oleh empat teolog yang secara khusus menyoroti isu-isu ekonomi. Secara umum para teolog itu menyatakan bahwa teologi ekonomik yang berdasarkan “Trinitas sosial” menolak model ekonomi individualistik yang memertaruhkan komunitas. Mereka memberi gambaran yang berbeda-beda tentang model ekonomi yang layak ditolak itu. Meeks dan Boff melihat praktik ekonomi pasar yang berlaku saat ini maupun praktik ekonomi sosialis yang pernah dijalankan di negara-negara komunis sebagai wujud-wujud dari model ekonomi semacam itu. Novak menolak praktik (...) sosialisme dan memandang kapitalisme yang bersifat demokratik sebagai model ekonomi yang trinitaris. Higginson menilai model ekonomi yang individualistik itu tersirat dalam “etos Protestan”nya Max Weber dan seringkali tercermin dalam cara pengelolaan perusahaan. Saya melanjutkan teologi ekonomik yang berdasarkan Trinitas Sosial itu dengan menjadikan secara spesifik keluarga sebagai wujud konkret komunitas. Saya berpendapat bahwa “Trinitas keluarga” dapat menjadi dasar bagi pengembangan teologi ekonomik yang responsif terhadap konteks ekonomi Indonesia dan Asia pada umumnya, di mana keluarga menjadi bukan hanya model hubungan sosial tetapi juga acuan etis. Kata-kata Kunci: Trinitas sosial, teologi ekonomik, ekonomi kekeluargaan. Abstract: This article explores the use of the theological concept of “social Trinity” by four theologians focusing on economic issues. In general, those theologians suggest that the concept of “social Trinity” implies an economic theology resisting the individualistic economy model, which puts the community at stake. They disagree on which economic system exactly they consider worth rejecting. For Meeks and Boff, that economic model includes both the existing market economy and socialism as had been practiced in the communist countries. Novak rejects the economic system of socialist countries whilst insisting that “democratic capitalism” is consistently Trinitarian. Higginson argues that the individualistic economy is implied in Weber’s “Protestant ethic” and often reflected in the management of corporations. Subscribing to the economic theology based on “social Trinity,” and, at the same time, responding specifically to the characteristics of the Indonesian context, I suggest the family as a concrete form of community. I argue that “familial Trinity” would serve as a foundation for developing an economic theology in response to the situation of Indonesian economy and Asian economy in general, where the family is not only a model of social relations, but also an ethical reference. Keywords: Social Trinity, economic theology, familial economy. (shrink)

This article focuses on the relevance of religious traditions of self-restraint, particularly Sabbath and Nyepi, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. From an economic perspective, the pandemic interrupts a lifestyle marked by an unceasing process of production and consumption that affects almost all aspects of life. Such a lifestyle, known as ‘productivism’, has been confronted with ‘anti-productivism’ promoted by groups of Marxism-inspired intellectuals and activists. Employing the method of public theology, this study reveals that religious traditions of self-restraint prepare (...) humanity to anticipate interruptions of regularity, such as a pandemic, in a way that is critical of productivism yet distinct from anti-productivism. From a spiritual perspective, the pandemic and religious traditions of self-restraint should be perceived as synergistic appeals to a balanced lifestyle that is socially, economically, and ecologically harmonious. (shrink)

Early on in Specters of Marx, the first sentence in Exordium reads: ‘Someone, you or me, comes forward and says: I would like to learn to live finally’. In the last paragraph of the last chapter, Derrida gives the injunction: ‘If he loves justice at least, the “scholar” of the future, the “intellectual” of tomorrow should learn it and from the ghost’. The ghost is the gift Derrida leaves us, yet, what can ghosts teach us about justice and how may (...) we (dare we) learn from them? Derrida invokes Levinas's name for the only time in Specters of Marx, with the line ‘The relation to others – that is to say, justice, writes Levinas’. From ‘Violence and Metaphysics’ to ‘At This Very Moment in This Work Here I Am’, the spectral relation between Derrida and Levinas already performs spectral justice. How do we say ‘J'accepte’ to spectral justice – justice that we cannot rightly possess? The figure and logic of the ghost serve not merely rhetorical purposes but, in its non-presence and presence, the ghost becomes the trace of the justice that we can neither own nor disown, but need to learn to live with, even if, in politics and in life, the fear of ghosts remains. (shrink)

This article attempts to create the space for rethinking the politics and ethics of consumption by initiating dialogues with Swadeshi movements and Gandhi in order to transform the spaces ofproduction transcending the concern for consumption choices. Analysing the history of Swadeshi movements in pre-independence India, especially Bengal, and drawing inspiration from Gandhi 's Swadeshi movement and his principles of swaraj and satyagraha, an attempt has been made here to provide an aesthetic, ethical and spiritual foundation for the present version of (...) the Swadeshi drive in India, which is substantively immersed in the logic of market capitalism and mindless consumption. The article explores pathways of improvement of quality of life, experi ences in happiness and fulfilment, both individual and collective, by creating a culture of self-development, responsible consumption and community building efforts on the basis of sharing and concern for others. (shrink)

This book explores the contours of a transformational sociology which seeks to reconsider the horizons of sociological imagination. It questions accepted modernist assumptions such as the equation of society and nation-state, the dualism of individual and society and that of ontology and epistemology. Arguing that contemporary sociology suffers from what Ulrich Beck calls the Nato-like fire power of western sociology, it argues that sociology has to open itself to transcivilizational dialogues and planetary conversations about self, culture and society. The book (...) also challenges scholars to go beyond a privileging of the post-traditional telos of modernist sociology and puts forward a foundational interrogation of modernist sociology. It underscores the limitations of established conventions of sociology and considering an alternative sociology based upon Confucian vision and practice of self-transformation. This collection offers a way to go beyond dominant structures of modern sociology and contemporary dominant ways of thinking about and doing sociology helping us cultivate a transdisciplinary sociology. (shrink)

Presents a wide offering of contemporary philosophical perspectives--including theoretical, historical, cross-cultural, and evolutionary--regarding the nature of art and the possibility of its definition.

The discourse and practice of humanism is at a cross-road, now challenged by posthuman reflections on what it means to be human. Our understanding of human and humanism is also challenged by transformations in nation-state and citizenship. In this context, the present article explores pathways of a new global humanity emerging out of cross-cultural reflections and new intellectual and social movements.

Discourse, dialogue and deliberation are important frames for thinking about and creating an ideal inter- subjective condition and a dignified society at present. This article presents the contours of such a new ethics of argumentation by carrying out a detailed discussion of the relationship between Gandhi and Tagore, and the way they argued with each other. Their arguments and counter-arguments were not for the sake of win ning any egotistic victory but for exploring truth. It also connects this new ethics (...) of argumentation in dia logue with the agenda of moral argumentation offered by Jurgen Habermas, the heart-touching social theor ist of our time. (shrink)

This article strives to make a critical assessment of the claim of discourse ethics, as articulated by Jürgen Habermas, to meet with the challenges of moral consciousness and communicative action today. The article locates Habermas' theory of discourse ethics in the contemporary movement to remoralize institutions and to build a post-conventional moral theory. It describes Habermas' agenda and looks into incoherences in his project in accordance with his own norms. Beginning with an internal critique of Habermas, the article, however, is (...) engaged in an interrogation of the Habermasian agenda from outside its own frame of reference precisely because the issues that the discovered tensions raise, cannot be resolved within the rationalist framework of Habermas. The article argues that in order to realize the lofty agenda of transformation that discourse ethics sets for itself, it must now make a dialogue with critical and practical spir ituality. It gives a brief sketch of the agenda of spiritual transformations that can help discourse ethics solve some of its own stated problems such as the problems of anthropocentrism and cognitive distantiation and be a transformative agent in thinking through the theory and practice of moral consciousness and communicative action today. (shrink)

This paper examines the issue of teaching of ethics in management education with specific reference to the debate on this and pedagogic interventions in India and the United States. It describes, among others, the initiative taken at Harvard Business School to teach ethics to MBA students as well as the effort made by the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta to teach ethics and human values to the students. It is argued that all these pedagogic initiatives can help us to be (...) more reflective about the predicament of ethics in our practice of management in particular and life in general. In conclusion, it is argued that the universe of discourse of ethics must be broadened whereby ethical orientation does not refer to one's minimalist concern of being legally correct but to pursuing actively the well-being of others, especially of those who do not matter much to the managers of systems. (shrink)

Quest for a good society has a long pedigree in sociological thought and critical reflections. It vibrates with many themes of liberation, morality and justice in classical sociology as pioneered by thinkers such as Marx and Durkheim and themes of decent society and creative society in recent theoretical discourses. The present essay discusses this quest for a good society in contemporary social sciences with a detailed discussion of the work of Robert N. Bellah, the pre-eminent sociologist of our times. It (...) discusses Bellah’s quest for a good society in Japan and the US and in the process it discusses related themes such as dynamic harmony and dynamic sunyata. (shrink)

Self-development of individuals and societies is an epochal challenge now but surprisingly very little has been written about this in the vast field of development studies and social sciences. The present book is one of the first efforts in this field and explores in detail the dynamics of pursuits of self-development and the accompanying contradictions in the self-study mobilization called Swadhyaya. Giri is one of the pioneers in bringing self-development to the core of theory and ethnographic multiverse of humanities and (...) development studies. (shrink)

Exploring new frontiers of sociology does not mean extending existing theories and methods but rather interrogating some of its uncritically accepted modernist assumptions, such as the equating of society and nation-state, the dualism of individual and society and that of ontology and epistemology. Beyond Sociology explores pathways in which we go beyond sociology in terms of exploring the contours of a transformational sociology; this seeks to transform the assumptions of conventional sociological theorizing and practice as well as modes of sociological (...) imagination. Despite all the waters that have flowed around the world for the last 150 years, contemporary sociology, even so-called global sociology, suffers from what Ulrich Beck called the NATO-like firepower of Western sociology. In this context, sociology has to open itself to transcivilizational dialogues and planetary conversations about the very themes of thinking about self, culture and society. So far, globalization of sociology has meant globalization of themes and methods of modernist sociology, which makes an easy equation between sociology and modernity. For sociologists such as Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and André Béteille, sociology is a modern discipline and is post-traditional. But if sociology blindly follows the post-traditional teleology of modernity, how can it study varieties of forms of life—traditional, modern, postmodern and transmodern? These varieties of forms of life exist not only in the so-called traditional societies such as India or Lapland but in all contemporary societies—whether India, Indonesia, Sweden, France, Britain, Germany, Singapore, China or the USA. Beyond Sociology thus initially challenges us to go beyond an a priori teleological privileging of the post-traditional telos of modernist sociology. It invites us to make a foundational interrogation of modernist sociology as a prelude to making sociology part of a planetary conversation about the very themes such as society and individual that it seeks to understand. (shrink)

Considering the different traditions of cosmopolitan thinking and experimentation, this cutting edge volume examines the contemporary revival of cosmopolitanism as a response to the challenges of living in an interdependent world. Through a unique multidisciplinary approach, it takes the debate beyond the one-sided universalism of the Euro-American world and explores the multiverse of transformations which confront cosmopolitanism. The collection highlights central questions of cosmopolitan responsibility, global citizenship and justice as well as the importance of dialogue among civilizations, cultures, religions and (...) traditions. Exploring the ethical and political dimensions of globalization, it outlines the pathways of going beyond cosmopolitanism by striving for a post-colonial cosmopolis characterized by global justice, trans-civilizational dialogues and dignity for all. (shrink)

Knowledge and human liberation are epochal challenges and a key question here is what the meaning of knowledge and the meaning of human liberation are. This article argues that knowledge means not only knowledge of self, society and nature as conceived within the predominant dualistic logic of modernity but also knowledge of transcendental self beyond sociological role playing, knowledge of nature beyond anthropocentric reduction and control, and knowledge of cosmos, God and transcendence in an interconnected spirit of autonomy and interpenetration. (...) Liberation means not only liberation from oppressive structures but also liberation from one’s ego and the will to control and dominate. The article discusses the transformative link between knowledge and liberation through a critical dialogue with Jürgen Habermas and Sri Aurobindo, focusing mainly on their works, Knowledge and Human Interests and Synthesis of Yoga. The article does not simply compare and contrast Habermas and Sri Aurobindo or compare and contrast the so-called Western rationality and Eastern spirituality but seeks to create a condition for transformative criticism for both. (shrink)

Caste is a multidimensional reality in history and society, and it has manifested itself through varieties of structures of domination which are simultaneously cultural, economic, political and ideological as caste has also been related in complex ways with structures of class and gender domination. These structures of domination have led to the annihilation of self and society. This led Ambedkar to challenge us for annihilating caste. For Ambedkar, annihilation of caste calls for the realization of each person as an individual (...) and not just a caste person. It also calls for the destruction of caste privileges, discrimination and their scriptural legitimation. However, this call for annihilation mainly has been a structural project without enough attention to the project of transformation of consciousness—self and social. There is a hint of this in Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste when he urges us to realize each one of us as unique individuals beyond the holes of caste which is further deepened in his Buddha and His Dhamma. Transformation of consciousness is also suggested in Adi Shankara’s treatise on self, Atmastakam. The essay engages itself with Ambedkar, Shankara, Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, among others, as they help us in the transformation of caste domination and present a new hermeneutics of self-realization and social liberation. It deals with the simultaneous challenges of structural transformation of caste as well as consciousness of caste at the levels of both self and society which can draw on multiple sources of critique, creativity and transformations in India and the world. Brahminism is the poison which has spoiled Hinduism. You will succeed in saving Hinduism if you will kill Brahminism. There should be no opposition to this reform from any quarter. It should be welcomed even by the Arya Samajists, because this is merely an application of their own doctrine of guna-karma. Whether you do that or you do not, you must give a new doctrinal basis to your religion—a basis that will be in consonance with liberty, equality and fraternity; in short, with democracy. I am no authority on the subject. But I am told that for such religious principles as will be in consonance with liberty, equality and fraternity, it may not be necessary for you to borrow from foreign sources, and that you could draw for such principles in the Upanishads. Whether you could do so without a complete remoulding, a considerable scraping and chipping off from the ore they contain, is more than I can say. (Ambedkar, 2002[1936], p. 303). (shrink)

The enhancement of social inclusion is a key to maintaining cohesion in society and to foster the benefits of cultural diversity. Using insights from the Dual Identity Model with a special focus on active categorization, we develop an intervention to increase social inclusion. Our intervention encourages the participants to categorize on a superordinate level while being exposed to their own culture. Across a set of experiments, we test the efficacy of our intervention against control conditions on the effect of social (...) inclusion, measured by perceived social distance. Results show an increase in cultural closeness and provide preliminary support for the use of a DIM-based intervention to increase intercultural inclusion. (shrink)