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Harmony and Exchange

Toward a Legoic Society

by Nick Mehrdad Loghmani (Author) Ramin Jahanbegloo (Author)
©2017 Monographs XXVIII, 116 Pages
Series: American University Studies, Volume 227

Summary

This book examines two main concepts – harmony and exchange – in relation to the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of human life. As such, what differentiates humans from other living species are the possibility of understanding a context and the willingness to collaborate and create complex models of exchange. Specifically, emotion and intellect are established as fundamental dimensions of our being which play key roles in exchange with others and dealing with our environment.
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.

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

| ix →

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1: Dimensions of exchange

Figure 2: Exchange universe

Figure 3: Exchange and context

| xi →

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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.

| xiii →

INTRODUCTION

“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
Year
2017
ISBN (ePUB)
9781433137761
ISBN (PDF)
9781453919217
ISBN (MOBI)
9781433137778
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.

Biographical notes

Nick Mehrdad Loghmani (Author) Ramin Jahanbegloo (Author)

Nick Mehrdad Loghmani is a senior information technology adviser with over a dozen years’ experience in some of the world’s leading companies such as the Royal Bank of Canada, the Toronto Dominion Bank, CGI, and Salesforce. He is also a researcher in the fields of mathematics, computer science, and cognitive science. Some of his contributions have been published in a monograph entitled The Harmonic Theory, a theory on the emergence of intelligent systems. He is a co-founder of Solidarity with Iran, an ecumenical group that promotes inclusiveness and democratic principles, and a co-author of Charter 91, a blueprint for promoting new participatory avenues in Iran. He is a contributor to Radio Free Europe, BBC Persian, the Huffington Post, and Seminar magazine. Loghmani is also a member of the advisory board at the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Peace Studies of the Jindal Global Law School in Delhi, India. He has been a founder or partner in a number of technology firms. He received his B.S. in mathematics from the University of Waterloo. Ramin Jahanbegloo is Executive Director of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Nonviolence and Peace Studies and Vice Dean of the School of Law at Jindal Global University, Delhi, India. He received his B.A. and M.A. in philosophy, history, and political science and later his Ph.D. in philosophy from the Sorbonne University. Since 1993, he has taught and conducted research at numerous academic institutions, including the Academy of Philosophy in Tehran, the French Institute for Iranian Studies, Harvard University, University of Toronto, the Cultural Research Centre in Tehran, the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi, and York University in Toronto. He is also a member of the advisory board of PEN Canada. He is the winner of the Peace Prize from the United Nations Association in Spain (2009) for his extensive academic works promoting dialogue between cultures and his advocacy for non-violence, and more recently the winner of the Josep Palau i Fabre International Essay Prize.

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