Harmony and Exchange
Toward a Legoic Society
Summary
This text provides a new perspective that examines «being and becoming» in a multidimensional exchange framework, concentrating on the analysis of a utilitarian society which reduces human beings to operators and servants of techno-scientific machinery. This approach to validity demands conformity to social and political norms which have lost touch with the intellectual and emotional expressions of the citizens of the world, resulting in an environment of alienation, violence, and subordination of humans to meaningless institutions and positivistic ideologies. The quest for true harmony and collaborative exchange in contemporary societies requires the recognition of multiple sites of subjectivity, self-certainty, and global domination of techno-scientific rationality. This book’s primary application towards a Legoic society is built on a critical pedagogy committed to dialogue and exchange, and is an environment that is accompanied by the process of development of a critical consciousness based on new systems of agency, moving toward a fundamentally non-reductionist praxis of the socio-political dimension of living together.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Notes
- Chapter 1. The Harmonic Theory
- Harmonic Value
- Expression
- Composition
- Environment
- Harmonic System
- Context
- Dimensions of Exchange: Time, Intellect and Emotion
- Exchange in the Socio-economic Context
- Economic/Time Exchange
- Intellectual Exchange
- Context Type: Natural, Social and Imaginary
- The Three Es: Extend, Enrich and Exchange
- Transformation
- Transformation is Mutual
- Notes
- Chapter 2. Autonomy and Integration
- Balance between Integration and Autonomy
- Notes
- Chapter 3. Violence and Serfdom: Erosion of Autonomy
- Notes
- Chapter 4. Harmonic Transformation
- Notes
- Chapter 5. The Closing of the Universe of Exchange
- Notes
- Chapter 6. Living in Excellence: Towards the Legoic Society
- Notes
- Chapter 7. Peace and Harmony
- Notes
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Figure 1: Dimensions of exchange
Figure 2: Exchange universe
Figure 3: Exchange and context
It is a pleasant duty to record our debts of gratitude to all those who have supported our research and writing of this book. First and foremost, thanks and respect to Nicolas Tenzer, whose wisdom has had a profound impact on our work. We are also deeply grateful to Mujibur Rehman. Our interactions with peers and friends in the past 3 years have allowed us to reflect upon and refine further some of the earlier arguments of this book. Similarly, we thank all the staff of Peter Lang for their patience, serenity, integrity and professionalism. A special and grateful thanks to our friend, Ahmad Shahmolki for his comments. We would also like to thank a number of people for their assistance in making this book possible. Many of these people have assisted us in the past few years in different manners, among these Andres Ortega, Doug Orr, Dr. Zainalabedin Navabi, Tim Spurway and Dr. Houman Nafisi. On a higher plane, we hope that members of our immediate families accept this book on harmony and exchange as a token of our sincere gratitude for all they have endured in the course of the last few years. We value most the efforts of our wives to whom we dedicate this book.
“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
—Albert Einstein
What causes humans to form societies, trade with each other, create families, have an intense desire for extending their territory and discover new worlds? What causes us to worship Gods, create religious institutions and make governments? Why do most human beings prefer to dwell in proximity to each other and to populate cities instead of living in seclusion? What is the best framework and model to explain human happiness and wealth? Is economic activity alone a good tool for enacting policies and to measure wealth of a nation? Are there any other motivators beyond our economic utility that cause us to live together, form friendships, trade or immigrate to a new society? Above all, what makes us seek harmony and peace?
Details
- Pages
- XXVIII, 116
- Publication Year
- 2017
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781433137761
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781433137778
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781453919217
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433135279
- DOI
- 10.3726/978-1-4539-1921-7
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2017 (September)
- Published
- New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien, 2017. XXVIII, 116 pp.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
