Cultures Differ Differently: Selected Essays of S.N. Balagangadhara (Critical Humanities Across Cultures)

This volume brings together a collection of essays by contemporary thinker and social scientist S.N. Balagangadhara which develop an alternative theoretical framework for a comparative study of Western and Asian cultures. These essays illustrate how ‘decolonisation of social sciences’ is a cognitive task and offer novel hypotheses about human beings and society. They demonstrate the implications of cultural difference in the study of domains such as psychology, political theory, ethics, religion, sociology, translation, law, Indology and philosophy. The book addresses new questions in the study of Western and Indian culture and social sciences, and discusses themes like selfless morality and the moral self; knowledge and action; critical representations of Indian traditions and classical literature; law, religion and culture; translation and interpretations; and varna and social systems. Part of the Critical Humanities Across Cultures series, this interdisciplinary volume will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of philosophy, philosophy of science, ethics, religious studies, postcolonial studies, sociology and social anthropology, cultural studies, literature, comparative studies and Global South studies. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series 3 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction: studying other cultures in the twenty-first century 8 Author’s voice 20 1 Selfless morality and the moral self 28 2 Knowing to act and acting to know 56 3 How to speak for the Indian traditions 83 4 Law, religion and culture 106 5 Seven problems in translation: the case of India 129 6 The Vedic society and a brain stasis 145 7 The Indology and sociology of varna 162 8 Knowledge, bullshit and the study of India 178 Afterword 208 Index 211 This book presents essays by contemporary thinker and social scientist S. N. Balagangadhara which develop an alternative theoretical framework for a comparative study of Western and Asian cultures. It explores cultural difference in psychology, political theory, ethics, religion, sociology, translation, law, Indology, and philosophy.