Fwd: Recent open access publication: Science and the Other - An Inquiry into the Geopolitics of Knowledge, Potiguara Ontology and the Hard Problem of Modern Science
Ashish Kothari
Friends, this book may be of interest. Pl. contact Jan directly for further information.
Ashish
Ashish Kothari Apt 5 Shree Datta Krupa 908 Deccan Gymkhana Pune 411004, India https://ashishkothari.in
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| Subject: | Recent open access publication: Science and the Other - An Inquiry into the Geopolitics of Knowledge, Potiguara Ontology and the Hard Problem of Modern Science |
|---|---|
| Date: | Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:59:12 +0100 |
| From: | jan <jlin...@uni-bonn.de> |
| To: | Gta <global-tapestry-alt...@lists.riseup.net> |
| CC: | Ashish Kothari <ashish...@riseup.net> |
Dear friends and colleagues,
I am pleased to present you our latest book publication:
Science and the Other:
An Inquiry into the Geopolitics of Knowledge, Potiguara Ontology and the Hard Problem of Modern Science
Abstract
Scientific knowledge has granted us superpowers. We have turned our wildest dreams into reality – and some of our deepest nightmares. We have reshaped the Earth, ushering in the 'Anthropocene'; yet, we seem to lack the wisdom to address the challenges of this new era.
We cannot afford to dismiss potentially useful knowledge on mere ideological grounds without due assessment.
Science and the Other is an in-depth exploration of what hinders us from engaging in cross-fertilising pluriversal dialogue about just and sustainable ways of knowing and being. The book examines how scientific universalism naturalises the othering and exploitation of both human and non-human nature. Other(-ed) knowledge practices are marginalised and excluded from scientific discourse on the presumption that they are incompatible with scientific evidence. Drawing on three years of collaborative action research with the Potiguara nation in north-east Brazil, the book offers a comparative analysis of their cosmology and academic theorising about mind and matter. Scientific evidence from quantum physics and neuroscience allows for a wide range of ontological interpretations, which do not necessarily preclude Potiguara cosmology and practice. Accordingly, there are no objective grounds for scientists to avoid engaging in pluriversal dialogues with other(-ed) ways of knowing. Furthermore, the use of radically different metaphors paints a different picture of 'reality', enabling onto-epistemic shifts and opening up new horizons beyond the scope of modern/colonial visions of “progress” and “development”.
Aim of the Book
Science and the Other seeks to offer a strong argument for opening and rethinking “science” together with its hitherto excluded “Others” (or its victims, as Isabelle Stengers would have it).
It offers readers from different backgrounds comprehensive introductions into complex discourses and fields of knowledge, such as:
- The entangled histories and metaphysics behind scientific universalism and its instrumental role for modern/colonial geopolitics of structural injustice and exploitation.
- The ethnohistory, cosmology and practice of the Potiguara as one example of an othered, subalternised collective way of knowing and being.
- The scientific discourse about the fundamental structures of being and the difficulty of subsuming scientific evidence under a unified theory of mind and matter (here addressed as the “hard problem of modern science”).
The challenges of the so-called Anthropocene urge us to be humble and curious enough to listen to and experiment with different and diverging ways of knowing-feeling-doing-being - even if we cannot fully grasp them.
Science and the Other is a call to create pluriversal spaces, both inside and outside academia, for cross-fertilizing dialogues and rethink scientific ethos and practice against the backdrop of its multiple consequences and responsibilities from the perspective of an ethics of life.
Access to the Book
The book has been published Open Access with Springer Nature under a Creative Commons licence, and is available for free via the following link:
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-03927-9
Your comments, critiques and queries are highly welcome! ;-)
Warm regards,
Jan Linhart
____________________________________________________________
Jan Linhart
Senior Research Associate
Center for Life Ethics/Hertz Chair TRA 4
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 7
53113 Bonn
Tel: +49-(0)228-73-66209
Fax: +49-(0)228-73-66201
Recent Publication:
Linhart J (2025) Science and the Other: An Inquiry into the Geopolitics of Knowledge, Potiguara Ontology and the Hard Problem of Modern Science, OPEN ACCESS: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-03927-9