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9780197500583

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Beyond Reason is a timely and signal contribution to provincialize Western knowledgeand ways of knowing. Sanjay Seth does it by cautiously undermining the dogmas that identify the explanation with what is explained and the belief that 'society' is an existing entity rather than a social sciences invention. * Walter Mignolo, author of The Politics of Decolonial Investigations * After the sweeping critiques of Western ways of knowing by poststructuralist and postcolonial theory, what then? With patience, clarity, and sophistication, Sanjay Seth tackles the paradoxes of a situated examination of situated knowledge. By focusing on the authorizing work of academic disciplines, he brings a fresh perspective to the limits and possibilities of social science. * Webb Keane, author of Ethical Life: Its Natural and Social Histories * Sanjay Seth's powerful argument takes seriously the historicity and contingency of all knowledge, without falling into relativism. He explores how Western ideas of progress and rationality have been decentered at a time of their unprecedented global diffusion. He anatomizes this paradoxical conjuncture, engaging with important work in science studies, political theory, social history, anthropology, and decolonial studies. He does so without embracing alternatives from the global 'South' or claiming the authority of 'critique', but by espousing an epistemology and an ethics of translation. Seths rigorous arguments will stimulate much needed discussion and debate on the limits and potential of our present thinking. * James Clifford, author of Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the 21st Century * Sanjay Seth's penetrating analysis of the contingent and parochial origins of the social sciences offers novel ways of framing arguments for the decolonization of knowledge. Beyond Reason unfolds a new vision of a twenty-first century social science critically aware of its possibilities and limitations. An outstanding and erudite intervention in an important debate. * Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age * Beyond Reason makes an ambitious, compelling, and original argument that social science, far from being universal, is instead a parochial form of knowledge that has been globalized through the mechanisms of colonialism and imperialism. With great erudition,Seth combines a broad epistemological critique of social scientific knowledge with a detailed discussion of the disciplines of history, international relations, and political theory. The result is a fascinating reflection on the limits of social scientific reason. * Amy Allen, author of The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory *

Beyond Reason makes an ambitious, compelling, and original argument that social science, far from being universal, is instead a parochial form of knowledge that has been globalized through the mechanisms of colonialism and imperialism. With great erudition, Seth combines a broad epistemological critique of social scientific knowledge with a detailed discussion of the disciplines of history, international relations, and political theory. The result is a fascinating reflection on the limits of social scientific reason. -- Amy Allen, author of The End of Progress: Decolonizing the Normative Foundations of Critical Theory Sanjay Seth's penetrating analysis of the contingent and parochial origins of the social sciences offers novel ways of framing arguments for the decolonization of knowledge. Beyond Reason unfolds a new vision of a twenty-first century social science critically aware of its possibilities and limitations. An outstanding and erudite intervention in an important debate. -- Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age Sanjay Seth's powerful argument takes seriously the historicity and contingency of all knowledge, without falling into relativism. He explores how Western ideas of progress and rationality have been decentered at a time of their unprecedented global diffusion. He anatomizes this paradoxical conjuncture, engaging with important work in science studies, political theory, social history, anthropology, and decolonial studies. He does so without embracing alternatives from the global 'South' or claiming the authority of 'critique', but by espousing an epistemology and an ethics of translation. Seth's rigorous arguments will stimulate much needed discussion and debate on the limits and potential of our present thinking. -- James Clifford, author of Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the 21st Century After the sweeping critiques of Western ways of knowing by poststructuralist and postcolonial theory, what then? With patience, clarity, and sophistication, Sanjay Seth tackles the paradoxes of a situated examination of situated knowledge. By focusing on the authorizing work of academic disciplines, he brings a fresh perspective to the limits and possibilities of social science. -- Webb Keane, author of Ethical Life: Its Natural and Social Histories Beyond Reason is a timely and signal contribution to provincialize Western knowledgeAand ways of knowing. Sanjay Seth does it by cautiously undermining the dogmas that identify the explanation with what is explained and the belief that 'society' is an existing entity rather than a social sciencesa invention. -- Walter Mignolo, author of The Politics of Decolonial Investigations

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Sanjay Seth is Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for Postcolonial Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has published extensively in the fields of postcolonial theory, modern Indian history, political and social theory, and international relations, including two previous books and two edited books. His articles have appeared a wide range of journals, including The American Historical Review, Journal of Asian Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Social Text, Cultural Sociology, and International Political Sociology, and some of these have been translated into Portuguese and Spanish. He is a founding co-editor of Postcolonial Studies.

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