Powers of the Secular Modern: Talal Asad and His Interlocutors

by David Scott (Editor), Charles Hirschkind

For more than three decades, Talal Asad has been engaged in a distinctive critical exploration of the conceptual assumptions that govern the West’s knowledges—especially its disciplinary and disciplining knowledges—of the non-Western world. The essays that make up this volume treat diverse aspects of this remarkable body of work. Among them: the relationship between colonial power and academic knowledge; the historical shifts giving shape to the complexly interrelated categories of the secular and the religious, and the significance of these shifts in the emergence of modern Europe; and aspects of human embodiment, including some of the various ways that pain, emotion, embodied aptitude, and the senses connect with and structure cultural practices. While the specific themes and arguments addressed by the individual contributors range widely, the essays cohere in a shared orientation of both critical engagement and productive extension. Note that this is not a festschrift, nor a celebratory farewell, but a series of engagements with a thinker whose work is in full spate and deserves to be far better known and understood.

Genres: Philosophy

377 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 4, 2006

About the author

David Scott is Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. He is the author of a number of books, including Omens of Adversity: Tragedy, Time, Memory, Justice and Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightenment, and is the editor of Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, all also published by Duke University Press.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great set of essays engaging with some of Asad's arguments. This is not just some tribute book where the authors all hail Asad. He has some supporters and naysayers, and even some of his supporters bring up things they disagree with. The best part is the large interview at the end where you get a great summary, right from Asad, about his intellectual growth and his influences. It's just a great book.

[versarbre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally got to it....