Anthropology as Ethics : : Nondualism and the Conduct of Sacrifice / / T. M. S. (Terry) Evens.

• VerfasserIn: Evens, T. M. S. (Terry),
• Place / Publishing House: New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2008]; ©2008
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (418 p.)

Anthropology as Ethics is concerned with rethinking anthropology by rethinking the nature of reality. It develops the ontological implications of a defining thesis of the Manchester School: that all social orders exhibit basically conflicting underlying principles. Drawing especially on Continental social thought, including Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, Dumont, Bourdieu and others, and on pre-modern sources such as the Hebrew bible, the Nuer, the Dinka, and the Azande, the book mounts a radical study of the ontology of self and other in relation to dualism and nondualism. It demonstrates how the self-other dichotomy disguises fundamental ambiguity or nondualism, thus obscuring the essentially ethical, dilemmatic, and sacrificial nature of all social life. It also proposes a reason other than dualist, nihilist, and instrumental, one in which logic is seen as both inimical to and continuous with value. Without embracing absolutism, the book makes ambiguity and paradox the foundation of an ethical response to the pervasive anti-foundationalism of much postmodern thought.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Organization and Key Usages -- Introduction: Nondualism, Ontology, and Anthropology -- Part I. The Ethnographic Self -- 1. Anthropology and the Synthetic a Priori -- 2. Blind Faith and the Binding of Isaac—the Akedah -- 3. Excursus I -- 4. Counter-Sacrifice and Instrumental Reason—the Holocaust -- 5. Bourdieu’s Anti-dualism and “Generalized Materialism” -- 6. Habermas’s Anti-dualism and “Communicative Rationality” -- Part II. The Ethnographic Other -- 7. Technological Efficacy, Mythic Rationality, and Non-contradiction -- 8. Epistemic Efficacy, Mythic Rationality, and Non-contradiction -- 9. Contradiction and Choice among the Dinka and in Genesis -- 10. Contradiction in Azande Oracular Practice and in Psychotherapeutic Interaction -- Part III. From Mythic to Value-Rationality -- 11. Epistemic and Ethical Gain -- 12. Transcending Dualism and Amplifying Choice -- 13. Excursus II -- 14. Anthropology and the Generative Primacy of Moral Order -- Conclusion: Emancipatory Selfhood and Value-Rationality -- Notes -- References -- Index