RAG Demo

Tag: Philosophy

  • 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

    Published in 2018, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century completes a loose trilogy after Sapiens, about the past, and Homo Deus, about the future. Here Harari focuses on the present and asks how individuals and societies can make sense of a world changing faster than their institutions and stories.

    The book is grouped into five parts covering the technological challenge, the political challenge, despair and hope, truth, and resilience. Individual chapters consider job losses from automation, the concentration of data in few hands, the crisis of liberal democracy, nationalism and immigration, terrorism and war, religion, the problem of fake news and post-truth politics, the limits of our own knowledge and what education should prepare children for.

    It ends on a personal note, with Harari describing how Vipassana meditation helps him observe his own mind. Many essays began as articles and talks, so the book is more fragmented than its predecessors, but its clear framing of complex issues has made it popular with readers seeking a guide to contemporary debates.

    Book details

    AuthorYuval Noah Harari
    First published2018
    Original languageEnglish
    GenrePhilosophy
    TypeNon-fiction
    Pages (approx.)370

    Themes

    • Automation and work
    • Post-truth politics
    • Liberalism in crisis
    • Education for the future
    • Meditation and self-knowledge

    Who should read it

    Readers looking for an accessible map of today's big debates on technology, politics and meaning.

  • The Argumentative Indian

    Published in 2005, The Argumentative Indian collects and expands essays by the Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen on Indian history, culture and identity. Its central claim is that India has a long, often neglected tradition of argument, scepticism and tolerance of dissent, visible in the Upanishads and the epics, in Buddhist councils, in the debates at Akbar's court and in the writings of Tagore and Gandhi.

    Sen uses this tradition to contest narrow religious nationalism, which he argues misrepresents India's past as uniformly Hindu and spiritual. He also challenges Western stereotypes of India as mystical and irrational. Later essays address gender inequality, caste, poverty, the nuclear question, the relation between India and China, and the calendars and scientific achievements that reveal cultural exchange.

    The book is learned but accessible, written in Sen's characteristic patient, carefully qualified style. It is as much a defence of reasoned public debate as a reading of history, and it has been widely discussed as a statement of a liberal, pluralist idea of India. Readers should expect essays rather than a single continuous argument.

    Book details

    AuthorAmartya Sen
    First published2005
    Original languageEnglish
    GenrePhilosophy
    TypeNon-fiction
    Pages (approx.)410

    Themes

    • Public reasoning
    • Pluralism and secularism
    • Indian identity
    • Heterodoxy
    • Social justice

    Who should read it

    Readers interested in a liberal, historically grounded case for Indian pluralism and democratic debate.