Beyond Reason (Paperback)

Sanjay Seth

ISBN 10: 0197688950 / ISBN 13: 9780197688953

Published by Oxford University Press Inc, New York, 2023

About this Item

Paperback. The knowledge disseminated by universities and mobilized by states to govern populations has been globally dominant for more than a century. It first emerged in the early modern period in Europe and subsequently became globalized through colonialism. Despite the historical and cultural specificity of its origins, modern Western knowledge was thought to have transcended its particularities such that, unlike pre-modern and non-Western knowledges, it was "universal,"or true for all times and places.In this bold and ambitious book, Sanjay Seth argues that modern knowledge and the social sciences are a product of Western modernity claiming aspurious universality: that what we treat as the "truths" discovered by social scientific reason are instead a parochial knowledge. Drawing upon and deriving its critical energies principally from postcolonial theory, Beyond Reason traverses many disciplines, including science studies, social history, art and music history, political science, and anthropology, and engages with a range of contemporary thinkers including Butler, Habermas, Chakrabarty, Chatterjee, and Rawls. Itdemonstrates that while global in their impact, the social sciences do not and cannot transcend the Western historical and cultural circumstances in which they emerged.If the social sciences arenot explained and validated simply by the fact that they are "true," it becomes possible to ask what purpose they serve, what it is that they "do." A defining feature of modern knowledge is that it is divided into disciplines, each with its own object of inquiry and corresponding protocols, and thus asking what such knowledge "does" requires asking what purpose disciplines serve. It also requires asking what ways of understanding the world they facilitate and what they disallow. BeyondReason proceeds to anatomize the disciplines of history and political science to ask what representations and relations with the past and with politics these academic disciplines enable, and what ways ofunderstanding and engaging the world they foreclose. Previously published in 2021. First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback in 2023. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780197688953

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Beyond Reason (Paperback)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, New York
• Publication Date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0197688950
• ISBN 13: 9780197688953
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

The knowledge that has dominated the globe for more than a century first emerged in the early modern period in Europe, and subsequently became globalized through colonialism. Despite the historical and cultural specificity of its origins, modern Western knowledge was thought to have transcended its particularities such that, unlike pre-modern and non-Western knowledges, it was "universal," or true for all times and places. Deriving its critical energies principally from postcolonial theory, Beyond Reason breaks new ground to argue that the assumed "truths" of social scientific reason are products of the specific circumstances of Western modernity, and thus that the social sciences are a parochial form of knowledge spuriously claiming universality.

About the Author

Sanjay Seth is Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for Postcolonial Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has published extensively in the fields of postcolonial theory, modern Indian history, political and social theory, and international relations, including two previous books and two edited books. His articles have appeared a wide range of journals, including The American Historical Review, Journal of Asian Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Social Text, Cultural Sociology, and International Political Sociology, and some of these have been translated into Portuguese and Spanish. He is a founding co-editor of Postcolonial Studies.