Author: J P S Uberoi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 143
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195655478
Description
‘The European Modernity’ is a classic attack on western dualism and an attempt to understand its consequences, from the nuclear bomb to the structure of the university.
This study examines the foundations of the European modernity in relation to the non-dual Hermetic tradition and its cosmological approach to life and knowledge. The symmetry of Dante, medicine of Paracelsus and science of Goethe form the background for this investigation of the modernist regime — its truth and method, pure and applied, its science of vivisection and technology of obsolescence. The leading hypothesis is that the self, the world and the other can have better relations in the future than they have had in the modern past, from the new Eucharist to the bomb.
Uberoi begins with an exploration of the origins of modernity in European science and religion, and proceeds to a discussion of the end of modernity. In the latter part of the book, he analyses society and selfhood, the Manhattan project, and the politics of language and pluralism in India.
This book completes the trilogy that Uberoi began with ‘Science and Culture (OUP 1978) and ‘The Other Mind of Europe (OUP 1984) and is an important contribution to the history and philosophy of science. It is essential reading for students and scholars of sociology, philosophy, science, and history.
Contents
Preface
List of plates
List of figures
CHAPTER 1
SYMMETRY AND THE HERMETIC TRADITION
The Vision of Dante
The Hermetic Tradition
Paracelsus
Conclusion: male and female
CHAPTER 2
THE BODY OF CHRIST AND THE ORIGIN OF MODERNITY
The problem of the origin of modernity
The Marburg colloquy (1529)
The new religion and dualism of mind and the world
Science under the modern regime
Postscript
CHAPTER 3
THE OTHER SCIENCE OF NATURE IN EUROPE
The problem and the framework
At the frontier: the human body
The science of colors
The radical European underground
CHAPTER 4
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT AND THE END OF MODERNITY
The Manhattan project (1945)
The science of vivisection
The technology of obsolescence in war and peace
Conclusion: the world system
CHAPTER 5
SELF AND OTHER: DUALISM AND NON-DUALISM
Opposition and mediation
Pluralism, civil society and the state
Unity in variety
References Cited
Index