The Nay-Science

Adluri, Vishwa [u.a.]:
The Nay-Science : a History of German Indology / Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee. - New York : Oxford University Press, 2014. - xvi, 494 S.
ISBN 978-0-19-993134-7
US$ 99,00 / £ 64,00 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-19-993136-1
US$ 39,95 / £ 25,99 (Paperpack)
DDC: 294.59210460943; 491.109

Beschreibung
The Nay Science offers a new perspective on the problem of scientific method in the human sciences. Taking German Indological scholarship on the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita as their example, Adluri and Bagchee develop a critique of the modern valorization of method over truth in the humanities.
   The authors show how, from its origins in eighteenth-century Neo-Protestantism onwards, the critical method was used as a way of making theological claims against rival philosophical and/or religious traditions. Via discussions of German Romanticism, the pantheism controversy, scientific positivism, and empiricism, they show how theological concerns dominated German scholarship on the Indian texts. Indology functions as a test case for wider concerns: the rise of historicism, the displacement of philosophical concerns from thinking, and the belief in the ability of a technical method to produce truth.
   Based on the historical evidence of the first part of the book, Adluri and Bagchee make a case in the second part for going beyond both the critical pretensions of modern academic scholarship and the objections of its post-structuralist or post-Orientalist critics. By contrasting German Indology with Plato's concern for virtue and Gandhi's focus on praxis, the authors argue for a conception of the humanities as a dialogue between the ancients and moderns and between eastern and western cultures. [Verlagsinformation]

List of Errata and Corrigenda: Online Link.

Inhalt
Acknowledgments. ix
Prologue. xi
INTRODUCTION. 1
   A History of German Indology. 1
   The History of German Indology as a History of Method. 7
   The Origins of the Historical-Critical Method in Neo-Protestantism of the 18th Century. 11
   Defining the Scope of Inquiry. 19
   Plan of Study. 25
1. THE SEARCH FOR AN UREPOS. 30
   Introduction. 30
   The First Phase of German Gītā Reception. 31
   The Birth of German Mahābhārata Studies. 40
   Ideas of Heroic Epic. 48
   The Indo-Germanic Epic. 53
   The Birth of Modern Mahābhārata Studies. 65
   Holtzmann's Legacy to Gītā Studies. 71
2. THE SEARCH FOR GERMAN IDENTITY. 73
   Introduction. 73
   The Genesis of Holtzmann's Mahābhārata. 75
   Polemics against the Brahmans. 77
   Ideas of Critical Reconstruction. 79
   Ideas of Epic Composition. 83
   Ideas of Religious Conflict. 86
   Ideas of Textual Corruption. 91
   Ideas of Historical Distortion. 98
   Ideas of Enlightened Religion. 103
   Ideas of Religious Persecution. 108
   Ideas of Religious Corruption. 112
   Ideas of Racial Contamination. 121
   Evaluating Holtzmann's Textual Project. 125
   Mahābhārata Criticism after Holtzmann. 140
    A Problem of Reception. 149
3. THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINAL GITA. 156
   Introduction. 156
   The Gītā Reemerges. 157
   The Pantheistic Gītā of Adolf Holtzmann. 163
   Pantheism and the Bhagavadgītā. 171
   The Theistic Gītā of Richard Garbe. 176
   Ideas of Bhāgavata Religion. 191
   The Epic Gītā of Hermann Jacobi. 200
   Defending Philosophical Pantheism. 207
   The Kṛṣṇa Gītā of Hermann Oldenberg. 217
   Resistances to Modernity. 224
   A Revelation and a Mystery. 231
   The Trinitarian Gītā of Rudolf Otto. 242
   God Reveals Himself. 250
   An Auto-Didact among Auto-Didacts. 259
   The Āryan Gītā of Jakob Wilhelm Hauer. 267
   By Reason of Race. 274
   The Method Becomes Autonomous. 277
   The Prejudices Are Institutionalized. 296
   An Essay in Understanding? 297
4. THE SEARCH FOR A UNIVERSAL METHOD. 314
   Introduction. 314
   The Scientization of Protestant Theology in the Critical Method. 315
   The Secularization of Protestant Theology in the Study of the History of Religions. 324
   The Institutionalization of Protestant Theology in Indology. 347
5. PROBLEMS WITH THE CRITICAL METHOD. 356
   Introduction356
   Steps toward a Scientific Indology. 358
   Steps toward a Positivist Philology. 365
   Construing the (Natural) Scientific Character of Philology. 372
   Historicism and the Seductions of Positive Sociology. 381
   Empiricism and the Search for General Propositions. 393
   Criticisms of the Positivistic Notion of Truth. 403
   Kant's Critical Turn and the Significance of Apriorism. 410
   Rethinking the Scientific Character of the Human Sciences. 413
CONCLUSION: Gandhi on the Gītā. 433
Bibliography. 447
Index. 473

Vorschau

Autoren
VISHWA ADLURI has a PhD in Philosophy from the New School and a PhD in Indology from Philipps-Universität Marburg. He is Adjunct Associate Professor of Religion at Hunter College. Profile page. Academia.edu Profile.
JOYDEEP BAGCHEE has a PhD in Philosophy from the New School and is Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter at Freie Universität Berlin.

Quellen: Oxford University Press (USA); Oxford University Press (UK); WorldCat; Bookbutler; Library of Congress; Google Books
Bildquelle: Oxford University Press (USA)
Bibliographie: [1]

References