Prophets Facing Backward
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| Author | : Meera Nanda |
| Publisher | : Rutgers University Press |
| Total Pages | : 334 |
| Release | : 2003 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 9780813533582 |
The leading voices in science studies have argued that modern science reflects dominant social interests of Western society. Following this logic, postmodern scholars have urged postcolonial societies to develop their own "alternative sciences" as a step towards "mental decolonization". These ideas have found a warm welcome among Hindu nationalists who came to power in India in the early 1990s. In this passionate and highly original study, Indian-born author Meera Nanda reveals how these well-meaning but ultimately misguided ideas are enabling Hindu ideologues to propagate religious myths in the guise of science and secularism. At the heart of Hindu supremacist ideology, Nanda argues, lies a postmodernist assumption: that each society has its own norms of reasonableness, logic, rules of evidence, and conception of truth, and that there is no non-arbitrary, culture-independent way to choose among these alternatives. What is being celebrated as "difference" by postmodernists, however, has more often than not been the source of mental bondage and authoritarianism in non-Western cultures. The "Vedic sciences" currently endorsed in Indian schools, colleges, and the mass media promotes the same elements of orthodox Hinduism that have for centuries deprived the vast majority of Indian people of their full humanity. By denouncing science and secularization, the left was unwittingly contributing to what Nanda calls "reactionary modernism." In contrast, Nanda points to the Dalit, or untouchable, movement as a true example of an "alternative science" that has embraced reason and modern science to challenge traditional notions of hierarchy.
| Author | : Meera Nanda |
| Publisher | : NYU Press |
| Total Pages | : 280 |
| Release | : 2011-10-01 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1583673105 |
Conventional wisdom says that integration into the global marketplace tends to weaken the power of traditional faith in developing countries. But, as Meera Nanda argues in this path-breaking book, this is hardly the case in today’s India. Against expectations of growing secularism, India has instead seen a remarkable intertwining of Hinduism and neoliberal ideology, spurred on by a growing capitalist class. It is this “State-Temple-Corporate Complex,” she claims, that now wields decisive political and economic power, and provides ideological cover for the dismantling of the Nehru-era state-dominated economy. According to this new logic, India’s rapid economic growth is attributable to a special “Hindu mind,” and it is what separates the nation’s Hindu population from Muslims and others deemed to be “anti-modern.” As a result, Hindu institutions are replacing public ones, and the Hindu “revival” itself has become big business, a major source of capital accumulation. Nanda explores the roots of this development and its possible future, as well as the struggle for secularism and socialism in the world’s second-most populous country.
| Author | : James R. Martel |
| Publisher | : Duke University Press |
| Total Pages | : 216 |
| Release | : 2022-07-11 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 147802304X |
In Anarchist Prophets James R. Martel juxtaposes anarchism with what he calls archism in order to theorize the potential for a radical democratic politics. He shows how archism—a centralized and hierarchical political form that is a secularization of ancient Greek and Hebrew prophetic traditions—dominates contemporary politics through a prophet’s promises of peace and prosperity or the threat of violence. Archism is met by anarchism, in which a community shares a collective form of judgment and vision. Martel focuses on the figure of the anarchist prophet, who leads efforts to regain the authority for the community that archism has stolen. The goal of anarchist prophets is to render themselves obsolete and to cede power back to the collective so as to not become archist themselves. Martel locates anarchist prophets in a range of philosophical, literary, and historical examples, from Hobbes and Nietzsche to Mary Shelley and Octavia Butler to Kurdish resistance in Syria and the Spanish Revolution. In so doing, Martel highlights how anarchist forms of collective vision and action can provide the means to overthrow archist authority.
| Author | : Michael Brenner |
| Publisher | : Princeton University Press |
| Total Pages | : 318 |
| Release | : 2010-08-02 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1400836611 |
Prophets of the Past is the first book to examine in depth how modern Jewish historians have interpreted Jewish history. Michael Brenner reveals that perhaps no other national or religious group has used their shared history for so many different ideological and political purposes as the Jews. He deftly traces the master narratives of Jewish history from the beginnings of the scholarly study of Jews and Judaism in nineteenth-century Germany; to eastern European approaches by Simon Dubnow, the interwar school of Polish-Jewish historians, and the short-lived efforts of Soviet-Jewish historians; to the work of British and American scholars such as Cecil Roth and Salo Baron; and to Zionist and post-Zionist interpretations of Jewish history. He also unravels the distortions of Jewish history writing, including antisemitic Nazi research into the "Jewish question," the Soviet portrayal of Jewish history as class struggle, and Orthodox Jewish interpretations of history as divinely inspired. History proved to be a uniquely powerful weapon for modern Jewish scholars during a period when they had no nation or army to fight for their ideological and political objectives, whether the goal was Jewish emancipation, diasporic autonomy, or the creation of a Jewish state. As Brenner demonstrates in this illuminating and incisive book, these historians often found legitimacy for these struggles in the Jewish past.
| Author | : Dorothea Olkowski |
| Publisher | : Indiana University Press |
| Total Pages | : 249 |
| Release | : 2012-04-23 |
| Genre | : Philosophy |
| ISBN | : 0253001129 |
What can come of a scientific engagement with postmodern philosophy? Some scientists have claimed that the social sciences and humanities have nothing to contribute, except perhaps peripherally, to their research. Dorothea E. Olkowski shows that the historic link between science and philosophy, mathematics itself, plays a fundamental role in the development of the worldviews that drive both fields. Focusing on language, its expression of worldview and usage, she develops a phenomenological account of human thought and action to explicate the role of philosophy in the sciences. Olkowski proposes a model of phenomenology, both scientific and philosophical, that helps make sense of reality and composes an ethics for dealing with unpredictability in our world.
| Author | : Charles C. Mann |
| Publisher | : Vintage |
| Total Pages | : 641 |
| Release | : 2018-01-23 |
| Genre | : Science |
| ISBN | : 0307961702 |
From the bestselling, award-winning author of 1491 and 1493—an incisive portrait of the two little-known twentieth-century scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, whose diametrically opposed views shaped our ideas about the environment, laying the groundwork for how people in the twenty-first century will choose to live in tomorrow's world. In forty years, Earth's population will reach ten billion. Can our world support that? What kind of world will it be? Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups--Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book. The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin. Cut back! was his mantra. Otherwise everyone will lose! The Wizards are the heirs of Norman Borlaug, whose research, in effect, wrangled the world in service to our species to produce modern high-yield crops that then saved millions from starvation. Innovate! was Borlaug's cry. Only in that way can everyone win! Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces--food, water, energy, climate change--grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future. With our civilization on the line, the author's insightful analysis is an essential addition to the urgent conversation about how our children will fare on an increasingly crowded Earth.
| Author | : Benjamin E Zeller |
| Publisher | : NYU Press |
| Total Pages | : 239 |
| Release | : 2010-03-01 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 0814797261 |
This in-depth study shows how new religious movements offer a variety of strategies for reconciling science and religious faith. By the twentieth century, established religious traditions were forced to grappled with the challenges presented by scientific knowledge and innovation. But emerging religions, still led by a living founder to guide them, found news ways to respond to science. The Hare Krishnas, the Unification Church, and Heaven’s Gate each found distinct ways to incorporate major findings of modern American science, understanding it as central to their wider theological and social agendas. In Prophets and Photons, Benjamin Zeller examines how these New Religious Movements (NRMs) crafted their views on science during their founding period, and how those views evolved over time. These NRMs shed light on how religious groups—new, old, alternative, or mainstream—could respond to the tremendous growth of power and prestige of science in late twentieth-century America. In this engrossing book, Zeller carefully shows that religious groups had several methods of creatively responding to science, and that the often-assumed conflict-based model of “science vs. religion” must be replaced by a more nuanced understanding of how religions operate in our modern scientific world.
| Author | : Prof.M.M. Ninan |
| Publisher | : Lulu.com |
| Total Pages | : 232 |
| Release | : 2018-09-12 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 0359083846 |
What I have done here is to state with necessary explanation the writings of Ambedkar on "The Philosophy of Hinduism" to which I have added the responses of various giants of the period to the problem of caste in India. These include the opinions of Gandhi, Vivekananda, Aurobindo and many others. A particularly relevant rational discussion is by V. Jayram.The Marxian solution of not much different, though they consider only the economic aspect neglecting the Opium - Religion. Is Ambedkar considering only the Opium, neglecting the economics? Is there a religious solution?
| Author | : István Keul |
| Publisher | : Routledge |
| Total Pages | : 271 |
| Release | : 2015-03-27 |
| Genre | : Social Science |
| ISBN | : 1317674480 |
Over the past five decades, the field of religion-and-science scholarship has experienced a considerable expansion. This volume explores the historical and contemporary perspectives of the relationship between religion, technology and science with a focus on South and East Asia. These three areas are not seen as monolithic entities, but as discursive fields embedded in dynamic processes of cultural exchange and transformation. Bridging these arenas of knowledge and practice traditionally seen as distinct and disconnected, the book reflects on the ways of exploring the various dimensions of their interconnection. Through its various chapters, the collection provides an examination of the use of modern scientific concepts in the theologies of new religious organizations, and challenges the traditional notions of space by Western scientific conceptions in the 19th century. It looks at the synthesis of ritual elements and medical treatment in China and India, and at new funeral practices in Japan. It discusses the intersections between contemporary Western Buddhism, modern technology, and global culture, and goes on to look at women’s rights in contemporary Pakistani media. Using case studies grounded in carefully delineated temporal and regional frameworks, chapters are grouped in two sections; one on religion and science, and another on religion and technology. Illustrating the manifold perspectives and the potential for further research and discussion, this book is an important contribution to the studies of Asian Religion, Science and Technology, and Religion and Philosophy.
| Author | : Scott R. Stroud |
| Publisher | : University of Chicago Press |
| Total Pages | : 311 |
| Release | : 2023 |
| Genre | : LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES |
| ISBN | : 0226824322 |
The story of how the Indian reformer Bhimrao Ambedkar reimagined John Dewey's pragmatism. In The Evolution of Pragmatism in India, Scott R. Stroud delivers a comprehensive exploration of the influence of John Dewey's pragmatism on Bhimrao Ambedkar, architect of the Republic of India's constitution. Stroud traces Ambedkar's development in Dewey's Columbia University classes in 1913-1916 through his final years in 1950s India when he rewrote the story of Buddhism. Stroud examines pragmatism's influence not only on the philosophical ideas underpinning Ambedkar's fight against caste oppression but also how his persuasive techniques drew on pragmatism's commitment to reconstruction and meliorism. At the same time, Stroud is careful to point out the ways that Ambedkar pushed back against Dewey's paradigm and developed his own approach to challenges in India. The result is a nuanced study of one of the most important figures in Indian history.
