This book proposes a radical shift in the way the world thinks about itself by highlighting the significance of Cross-Cultural Conversations. Moving beyond conventional boundaries, it examines the language in which histories are written; analyzes how scientific technology is changing the idea of identity; and highlights the need for a larger identity across nationality, race, religion, gender, ethnicity and class. It asks for a concerted effort to engage each other in open conversational forums on a range of contemporary global issues, alter our attitudes toward self and the other, and unlearn prejudices that perpetuate the practice of divisive identities.
The book also explores critical themes such as political actions, solidarity-in-diversity, clash of social identities, tensions between nationalism and globalism, the quest for global peace and authentic meeting of world religions. Further, it discusses the evolving connection between science and religion, focusing on key philosophical ideas that have permeated the Indian cultural soil.
The book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of philosophy, religious studies, science and technology studies, and cultural studies.
Foreword by Karan Singh. Acknowledgements. Why This Book? On the Idea of CCC 1. Cross-Cultural Conversation as a New Way of Learning 2. Cultural Diversity and the Quest for a Larger Identity in Our Time 3. Creative Tensions Between Nationalism and Globalism 4. Living in a Multi-Religious World in an Age of Science (a) On Religious Identity and Religious Diversity (b) Science-Religion ‘Samvada’ and the Indian Cultural Heritage 5. Imagining Soft Boundaries. Index
Biography
Anindita N. Balslev is an independent philosopher based in India and Denmark. Her research and teaching experience span India, France, the US and Denmark. She is a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion, and is on the board of the journals World Affairs and Zygon. She earlier served on the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS/DOSER). She has been awarded a scholarship by the government of France, two fellowships from Denmark and recently the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in New Delhi. She received her postgraduate degree from Calcutta University and PhD from the University of Paris.
Apart from many papers in professional journals, she is the author of A Study of Time in Indian Philosophy (1983; 2019), Cultural Otherness: Correspondence with Richard Rorty (2000), The Enigma of I-Consciousness (2013) and Reflections on Indian Thought: Fourteen Essays: On Indian Philosophical Themes (2019). She has organized several important CCC international conferences and is the editor of Cross-Cultural Conversation: Initiation (1996), Toward Greater Human Solidarity (2005), On India: Self Image and Counter Image (2013) and On World Religions: Diversity, Not Dissension (2014), and the co-editor of Religion and Time (1993) and Compassion in the Religions of the World (2009).
