Nay Science: A History of German Indology Contributor(s): Adluri, Vishwa (Author), Bagchee, Joydeep (Author) |
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ISBN: 0199931364 ISBN-13: 9780199931361 Publisher: Oxford University Press
Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions Published: July 2014 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | Europe - Germany - Religion | Hinduism - General - Religion | Philosophy |
Dewey: 294.592 |
LCCN: 2013012873 |
Physical Information: 1.5" H x 5.9" W x 9.1" L (1.40 lbs) 512 pages |
Themes: - Cultural Region - Germany - Religious Orientation - Hindu |
Features: Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents |
Review Citations: Choice 01/01/2015 pg. 813 |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The Nay Science offers a new perspective on the problem of scientific method in the human sciences. Taking German Indological scholarship on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita as their example, Adluri and Bagchee develop a critique of the modern valorization of method over truth in the humanities. The authors show how, from its origins in eighteenth-century Neo-Protestantism onwards, the critical method was used as a way of making theological claims against rival philosophical and/or religious traditions. Via discussions of German Romanticism, the pantheism controversy, scientific positivism, and empiricism, they show how theological concerns dominated German scholarship on the Indian texts. Indology functions as a test case for wider concerns: the rise of historicism, the displacement of philosophical concerns from thinking, and the belief in the ability of a technical method to produce truth. Based on the historical evidence of the first part of the book, Adluri and Bagchee make a case in the second part for going beyond both the critical pretensions of modern academic scholarship and the objections of its post-structuralist or post-Orientalist critics. By contrasting German Indology with Plato's concern for virtue and Gandhi's focus on praxis, the authors argue for a conception of the humanities as a dialogue between the ancients and moderns and between eastern and western cultures. |
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