karl bühler digital

Home > Journal > Journal Issue > Journal article

Publication details

Publisher: Springer

Place: Berlin

Year: 2018

Pages: 386-395

Series: Human Arenas

Full citation:

Devdutt Pattanaik, "A different way of seeing the world", Human Arenas 1 (4), 2018, pp. 386-395.

A different way of seeing the world

Devdutt Pattanaik

pp. 386-395

in: Human Arenas 1 (4), 2018.

Abstract

Western civilisation is generally presented as a journey from the world of many gods, to the world of one god, to the world of no god, i.e. from myth, to religion to science. This, we are told, is progress, the march of civilisation towards equality, hence Universal Human Rights, one that the rest of the world from Africa through India to China is expected to emulate. But is it? This paper asserts, but does not argue (for that would mean subscribing to the Western myth of one truth) that this view of the world is based on Western myth that tends to be universal, linear, singular, and objective-driven. There are other ways of seeing the world, shaped by different myths, the Indian myth, for example, that makes our worldview contextual, cyclical, plural and consequence-based (Pattanaik 2013a). Considering such non-Western worldviews will help the West realise how the West's current conflict with immigrants is not modern, or unique, but timeless, an integral part of its worldview.

Publication details

Publisher: Springer

Place: Berlin

Year: 2018

Pages: 386-395

Series: Human Arenas

Full citation:

Devdutt Pattanaik, "A different way of seeing the world", Human Arenas 1 (4), 2018, pp. 386-395.