Identity as Reasoned Choice: A South Asian Perspective on The Reach and Resources of Public and Practical Reason in Shaping Individual Identities

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A companion volume to Jonardon Ganeris popular textbook, Philosophy in Classical India: The Proper Work of Reason, this new book surveys in a lively and accessible style the nature of practical and public reason in India. It provides what is missing in Amartya Sens widely admired The Argumentative Indian: detailed discussion of the thinkersdissenters and heretics, as well as mainstream voiceswhose astonishing ideas so enrich contemporary discussion.

Reviews

"Drawing on premodern answers to rethink postmodern questions, and doing so with a philosopher's rigor, a non-philosopher's readability, and enormously creative thinking, Jonardon Ganeri does two important things at once. He suggests how to move forward into the future on the thorniest problems of self-identification, while revealing the depths of India's intellectual past and the resources it can offer for that task." -Sheldon Pollock, Columbia University
"Recent philosophical writing on the subject of identity. though often focused on distant parts of the globe, has failed to tap the philosophical traditions outside the West in the analyses it provides. This ambitious book admirably overcomes that limitation and locates in the tradition of Indian philosophy a basis for the idea that our identities are not given to us but are rationally chosen. Its range of historical reference --from Manu to Matilal-- is impressive and presented with confidence and verve. It will add rigour and detail and historical depth to a concept ('identity') that still remains relatively indisciplined in its deployment in the study of politics and culture." - Akeel Bilgrami, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University, New York.
Laudable both for its academic and philosophical rigor and the extent to which the traditions discussed in this book are deeply in play among individuals and groups interested in Eastern spirituality, I should hope that Ganeri is suitably commended for successfully meeting the criteria of both sets of readers - though I can't imagine how pleased the reader in the centre of this particular Venn diagram might be. * Emily Coolidge Toker, LSE Review of Books, April 2012 *
Taking Amartya Sens claim about Indias long traditions of debate and tolerance of diversity as his starting point, this engaging and thought-provoking book explores a number of specific examples of argumentation and public reasoning in traditional Indian sources. Yet Ganeris approach is far more rigorous, examining a wide variety of sources, including: Nyaya texts on logic, philosophical narratives in the Upanisads, Nikayas, and the Mahabharata, and Sabaras commentary on the Mimamsa Sutra. Throughout, Ganeri highlights the ways Indian sources make reasoned arguments, linking pre-modern examples of public and practical reason to current debates about politics and identity in India. One of Ganeris central arguments is that Indias religious traditions can sustain secular and democratic ideals. Such claims have much to offer recent debates about secularism and the role of religion in the public sphere. * Brian Black, Religious Studies Review, September 2013 *

Author Bio

Jonardon Ganeri writes on Indian philosophical theory in relation to the analytical tradition, on early South Asian modernity, and on conceptions of the human subject.