Globalization promises to bring people around the world together, to unite them as members of the human community. To such sanguine expectations, Pheng Cheah responds deftly with a sobering account of how the "inhuman" imperatives of capitalism and technology are transforming our understanding of humanity and its prerogatives. Through an examination of debates about cosmopolitanism and human rights, Inhuman Conditions questions key ideas about what it means to be human that underwrite our understanding of globalization. Cheah asks whether the contemporary international division of labor so irreparably compromises and mars global solidarities and our sense of human belonging that we must radically rethink cherished ideas about humankind as the bearer of dignity and freedom or culture as a power of transcendence. Cheah links influential arguments about the new cosmopolitanism drawn from the humanities, the social sciences, and cultural studies to a perceptive examination of the older cosmopolitanism of Kant and Marx, and juxtaposes them with proliferating formations of collective culture to reveal the flaws in claims about the imminent decline of the nation-state and the obsolescence of popular nationalism. Cheah also proposes a radical rethinking of the normative force of human rights in light of how Asian values challenge human rights universalism.
Globalization promises to bring people around the world together, to unite them as members of the human community. To such sanguine expectations, Pheng Cheah responds deftly with a sobering account of how the "inhuman" imperatives of capitalism and technology are transforming our understanding of humanity and its prerogatives. Through an examination of debates about cosmopolitanism and human rights, Inhuman Conditions questions key ideas about what it means to be human that underwrite our understanding of globalization. Cheah asks whether the contemporary international division of labor so irreparably compromises and mars global solidarities and our sense of human belonging that we must radically rethink cherished ideas about humankind as the bearer of dignity and freedom or culture as a power of transcendence. Cheah links influential arguments about the new cosmopolitanism drawn from the humanities, the social sciences, and cultural studies to a perceptive examination of the older cosmopolitanism of Kant and Marx, and juxtaposes them with proliferating formations of collective culture to reveal the flaws in claims about the imminent decline of the nation-state and the obsolescence of popular nationalism. Cheah also proposes a radical rethinking of the normative force of human rights in light of how Asian values challenge human rights universalism.
Prisoners and Prisons in India" is an in-depth exploration of the conditions within India's prison system, emphasizing the human rights of prisoners and the legal framework governing their treatment. The book provides a comprehensive analysis of the historical evolution of prisons in India, highlighting the various challenges that persist in the modern era, such as overcrowding, inadequate healthcare, and the systemic issues that often lead to the violation of prisoners' rights. At the core of this book is a detailed examination of the landmark Supreme Court case "Re-Inhuman Conditions in 1382 Prisons," which serves as a pivotal moment in India's judicial history. This case brought to light the appalling conditions in Indian prisons and led to a series of orders aimed at reforming the system. The book meticulously presents the full text of these Supreme Court orders, offering readers an authoritative source of legal directives that have shaped the current prison reform landscape. Key topics covered in the book include: Legal and Constitutional Framework: An overview of the constitutional rights of prisoners, the relevant acts and regulations like the Prison Act of 1894, and the significance of the Model Prison Manual 2016. Supreme Court’s Directives: A chronological account of the Supreme Court’s directives issued in response to the inhuman conditions in Indian prisons, with full-text orders included for reference. Prison Conditions: A critical analysis of the current state of Indian prisons, addressing issues such as overcrowding, health and hygiene, custodial violence, and the lack of basic amenities. Life Inside Prisons: Insights into the daily life of prisoners, including rehabilitation programs, the plight of undertrial prisoners, and the unique challenges faced by women and juvenile detainees. Prison Reforms: An examination of the efforts made to reform the prison system in India, including government initiatives, the role of NGOs, and the challenges of implementing sustainable changes. Comparative Analysis: A look at how India's prison system compares with those of other countries, drawing lessons from international standards and best practices. Future Directions: The book concludes with thoughtful recommendations for policymakers, legal practitioners, and civil society on how to continue the momentum of prison reforms to ensure the dignity and rights of all prisoners are upheld. This book is an essential resource for legal professionals, human rights activists, policymakers, and anyone interested in the justice system. It not only serves as a legal reference but also as a call to action for continuous improvement in the treatment of prisoners, emphasizing the importance of upholding human dignity within the criminal justice system. With its comprehensive coverage and detailed presentation of the Supreme Court's interventions, "Prisoners and Prisons in India" stands as a significant contribution to the discourse on human rights and prison reform in India.
Ashley Woodward demonstrates what a new generation of scholars are just discovering: that Lyotard's incisive work is essential for current debates in the humanities. Lyotard's ideas about the arts and the confrontations between humanist traditions and cutting-edge sciences and technologies are today known as 'posthumanism'. Woodward presents a series of studies to explain Lyotard's specific interventions in information theory, new media arts and the changing nature of the human. He assesses their relevance and impact in relation to a number of important contemporary thinkers including Bernard Stiegler, Luciano Floridi, Quentin Meillassoux and Paul Virilio.
At the origin of this volume, a simple question: what to make of that surprisingly monotonous series of statements produced by our societies and our philosophers that all converge in one theme - the importance of difference? To clarify the meaning of the difference at stake here, we have tried to rephrase it in terms of the two major and mutually competing paradigms provided by the history of phenomenology only to find both of them equally unable to accommodate this difference without violence. Neither the ethical nor the ontological approach can account for a subject that insists on playing a part of its own rather than following the script provided for it by either Being or the Good. What appears to be, from a Heideggerian or Levinasian perspective, an unwillingness to open up to what offers to deliver us from the condition of subjectivity is analysed in these pages as a structure in its own right. Far from being the wilful, indifferent and irresponsive being its critics have portrayed it to be, the so-called 'postmodern' subject is essentially finite, not even able to assume the transcendence to which it owes its singularity. This inability is not a lack - it points instead to a certain unthought shared by both Heidegger and Levinas which sets the terms for a discussion no longer our own. Instead of blaming Heidegger for underdeveloping 'being-with', we should rather stress that his account of mineness may be, in the light of contemporary philosophy, what stands most in need of revision. And, instead of hailing Levinas as the critic whose stress on the alterity of the Other corrects Heidegger's existential solipsism, the problems into which Levinas runs in defining that alterity call for a different diagnosis and a corresponding change in the course that phenomenology has taken since. Instead of preoccupying itself with the invisible, we should focus on the structures of visibility that protect us from its terror. The result? An account of difference that is neither ontological nor ethical, but 'mè-ontological', and that can help us understand some of the problems our societies have come to face (racism, sexism, multiculturalism, pluralism). And, in the wake of this, an unexpected defence of what is at stake in postmodernism and in the question it has refused to take lightly: who are we? Finally, an homage to Arendt and Lyotard who, if read through each other's lenses, give an exact articulation to the question with which our age struggles: how to think the 'human condition' once one realizes that there is an 'inhuman' side to it which, instead of being its mere negation, turns out to be that without which it would come to lose its humanity?
A master storyteller and unrivaled visionary, Clive Barker has mixed the real and unreal with the horrible and wonderful in more than twenty years of fantastic fiction. The Inhuman Condition is a masterwork of surrealistic terror, recounting tragedy with pragmatism, inspiring panic more than dread and evoking equal parts revulsion and delight.
Davis begins with the dramatic "Amistad" case, and then looks at slavery in the American South and the abolitionists who defeated one of human history's greatest evils.
