Conversations and Transformations: Toward a New Ethics of Self and SocietyIn 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. |
Contents
Social Criticism Cultural Creativity and the Contemporary Dialectics of Transformations | 1 |
Moral Commitments and the Transformation of Politics Kant Gandhi and Beyond | 27 |
Gandhi Tagore and a New Ethics of Argumentation | 45 |
Literature and the Tapashya of Transformation A Glimpse into the Creative Worlds of Chittaranjan Das | 71 |
Socrates and the Pig | 89 |
Universities and the Horizons of the Future | 99 |
Audited Accountability and the Imperative of Responsibility Beyond the Primacy of the Political | 111 |
Transcending Disciplinary Boundaries Creative Experiments and the Critiques of Modernity | 131 |
Rethinking the Imperative of Responsibility Development Ethics Aesthetics and the Challenge of Poverty | 199 |
Rethinking Human WellBeing A Dialogue with Amartya Sen | 223 |
WellBeing of Institutions Problematic Justice and the Challenge of Transformation | 245 |
Rethinking Systems as Frames of Coordination Dialogical Intersubjectivity and Creativity of Action | 275 |
Rethinking Civil Society | 287 |
Civil Society and the Limits of Identity Politics | 315 |
The Calling of an Ethics of Servanthood | 335 |
| 345 | |
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