Identity as Reasoned Choice

Ganeri, Jonardon:
Identity as reasoned choice : a South Asian perspective on the reach and resources of public and practical reason in shaping individual identities / Jonardon Ganeri. - London ; New York : Continuum, 2012. - x, 240 S.
ISBN 978-1-4411-9657-6
£ 70,00
DDC: 126
-- Angekündigt für April 2012, laut Amazon (UK) bereits lieferbar --

Beschreibung
In an increasingly multi-religious and multi-ethnic world, identity has become something actively chosen rather than merely acquired at birth. This book essentially analyzes the resources available to make such a choice.
   Looking into the world of intellectual India, this unique comparative survey focuses on the identity resources offered by India’s traditions of reasoning and public debate. Arguing that identity is a formation of reason, it draws on Indian theory to claim that identities are constructed from exercises of reason as derivation from exemplary cases. The book demonstrates that contemporary debates on global governance and cosmopolitan identities can benefit from these Indian resources, which were developed within an intercultural pluralism context with an emphasis on consensual resolution of conflict.
   This groundbreaking work builds on themes developed by Amartya Sen to provide a creative pursuit of Indian reasoning that will appeal to anyone studying politics, philosophy, and Asian political thought. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Preface. viii
Introduction: The Reach and Resources of Reason. 1
PART I: PUBLIC REASON PROMOTED
1. An Ideal of Public Reason. 19
   Public reason in the Questions of Milinda. 20
   An ideal of public reason in the Nyāya-sūtra. 25
2. Ancient Indian Logic as a Theory of Case-Based Reasoning. 30
   A model of reasoning in the Nyāya-sūtra. 30
   The theory transformed. 34
   Retrieving the ancient case-based model. 37
3. Neutrality: a Theory From the Time of Aśoka. 40
   A Buddhist treatise on public reason: the Elements of Dialogue. 40
   Eight stances in a dialogue. 41
   The ‘way forward’ and the ‘way back’. 43
4. Local Norms: the Priority of the Particular. 49
   Rules versus cases. 49
   Three models of particulars as standards. 51
   Particulars as paradigms in the Nyāya-sūtra. 56
   Particulars as prototypes in the Ritual Sūtras. 59
PART II: PRACTICAL REASON RESOURCED
5. The Critic Within. 69
   Multiple Hinduisms. 69
   A dissenting voice. 72
   Meeting reason with reason. 74
   Evidence, expertise and assent. 75
   Religion and reason. 77
6. Adapt and Substitute. 79
   The hermeneutics of ritual. 79
   Ethics in the Hindu canon. 80
   The reason of sages. 82
   Adaptive reasoning from paradigms. 83
7. Model Humans and Moral Instincts. 90
   Persons as paradigms of exemplary conduct. 90
   Ethical dilemmas: the ‘case’ (Kasus). 93
   The heart’s approval: moral instinct. 96
PART III: DISSENT
8. Implied Voices of Dissent. 103
   The paradox of inquiry. 103
   Inquiry as adjudication. 106
   The challenge reformulated in Śaṅkara. 111
9. Can One Seek to Answer any Question? Srīharṣa. 118
   On questioning: the pragmatics of interrogative dialogue. 118
   The prior knowledge argument. 122
   Against aiming. 126
   The longing for knowledge. 127
PART IV: IDENTITY, FOUND OR FASHIONED?
10. On the Formation of Self. 133
   Spiritual exercises and the aesthetic analogy. 133
   Philosophy as medicine. 136
   Plutarch and the Buddhists: returning oneself to the present. 139
   A life complete at every moment. 144
   Taming the self. 146
   Philosophy and the ends of life. 147
11. Problems of Self and Identity. 151
   Reincarnation and personal identity. 151
   Higher and lower selves. 154
   Bad thoughts and conscience. 156
   No self? 158
   Being true to your individual self. 160
12. Identity and Illusions about the Self. 163
   Speaking about the self. 163
   Polestar and compass: two modes of practical reason. 165
   The ethics of self-deception and the reach of reason. 167
   Cognitive stories. 171
13. “What You Are You Do Not See, What You See is Your Shadow”. 173
   The philosophical double. 173
   The double in Mauni’s fiction. 175
   Self to self. 179
   Inhabiting an identity. 183
PART V: IDENTITY & THE MODERN INTELLECTUAL
14. Interpreting Intellectual India. 189
    Questions of method. 189
    Objectivity. 190
    Immersion. 195
15. An Exemplary Indian Intellectual. 201
    Bimal Krishna Matilal. 201
    A conversation among equals. 205
    A common ground? 209
16. India and the Shaping of Global Intellectual Culture. 213
   Covert borrowings. 214
   Other routes of influence. 220
Concluding Summary. 225
Bibliography. 228
Index. 235

Autor

JONARDON GANERI is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex, UK. His research draws upon analytical, Indian and European traditions of philosophical thought. He has published four books, including The Lost Age of Reason: Philosophy in Early Modern India 1450-1700 (Clarendon Press, 2010). He was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, and a research fellow at King's College London and at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Profile page.

Quellen: Continuum Publishing; WorldCat; Amazon (UK)

Vom Verfasser haben wir in Indologica bereits die folgenden Werke erfaßt, an denen er beteiligt war:

• Indologica [11.12.2009] --> Philosophy in Classical India
• Indologica [22.09.2010] --> Journal of Indian Philosophy 2010 - 38,2-4
• Indologica [23.01.2011] --> Self, No Self?
• Indologica [12.03.2011] --> The Lost Age of Reason
• Indologica [22.09.2011] --> Apoha