BEYOND NATIONS & NATIONALISMS: One World

Modernism and Postmodernism

"... In a non-modern society, what is central is neither rationality nor its opposite, but something else, call it wisdom, which includes but supersedes rationality... alternatives to modern epistemology can hardly come from modern (Western) epistemology itself.." Makarand Paranjape in the Third Eye and Two Ways of (Un)knowing: Gnosis, Alternative Modernities, and Postcolonial Futures

"The relation between a society and its member's spirituality is reciprocal. A society's customs and laws, on the one hand reflect the spirituality of its members. The spirituality of its members, on the other hand, is largely shaped by the nature of society. This 'largely' is never, however, 'totally'.. Inspite of arch modernist B.F.Skinner's denial of 'freedom and dignity', we are not simply the products of our natural and social environments. We are, to be sure, deeply constituted by our relations to these environments. But in each moment, we create ourselves out of these relations in terms of our desires, purposes, meanings, and values - in short our spirituality. Because of this element of autonomy, individuals are not only shaped by their society; they can shape it in return. In stating this twofold position - that individuals are internally constituted by their social relations, and that they are nevertheless not totally determined by them - I have already rejected a modern for a post-modern viewpoint." David Ray Griffin in Spirituality and Society : Postmodern Visions (Suny Series in Constructive Postmodern Thought)