Jörn Rüsen

Oliver Kozlarek

The generation of meaning is the primary precondition for acting and thinking. The essays in this volume contribute to a discourse on this matter with a decentred, globalized world in mind. The notions civilization, humanism and modernity - far from being exclusively Western ideas - may facilitate joint efforts of reflecting on the universality of current human conditions, particularly since such reflexion is possible from particular cultural perspectives. Modernity presents us with a second Axial Time in which the quest for a plural, but shared, humane world is the challenge.

Civilizations - Axial Times - Modernities - Humanisms

Shaping a Humane World

Carlos A. Bustamante

De la teoría crítica a una crítica plural de la modernidad

Ernst Wolff

Octavio Paz is one of the most recognized Latin American writers. His essays offer a sophisticated critique of global modernity. Although his work has advanced many of the arguments that orient our contemporary debates in the social sciences and in philosophy, it has hardly ever been seriously taken into consideration in these disciplines. The volume suggests that this may have been a mistake. Its authors indicate ways in which Paz' essays can be read as substantial contributions to the contemporary debates in various fields. The aim of this book is to present to a non-Spanish speaking audience some of the discussions about Paz' offerings to the ongoing debates. It also wants to make a clear statement: a critique of our contemporary modernity must go hand in hand with a non-exclusive intercultural understanding of Humanism.

Humanism and Critique

Octavio Paz

This book presents a close reading of the work of the Mexican writer and Nobel Prize Laureate, Octavio Paz. It does so from the specific perspective of sociology and the more general perspective of the social sciences. The book identifies opportunities for relating Paz’ sociological ideas to contemporary debates, arguing that Paz’ sociology is linked very closely to his assessment of what could be called the post-colonial condition that Mexico has been experiencing. The book thus advances the understanding of the differences between post-colonial experiences in Latin America and those of other areas of the world. In addition to revealing Paz’ sociology, the book focuses on Modernity and examines Paz’ critique of Modernity and his “project of Modernity”. It shows that a close examination of the works of Octavio Paz helps redefine Modernity from a Latin American perspective as an experience in which the global and local are intertwined, and helps to point in the direction of a new kind of humanism.

Oliver Kozlarek

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