Michael Sandel 5 December 2017
Democracies need confrontation and debate in ethical and moral questions, says Michael Sandel.
pluralism
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- 26 May 2015“Is the legendary Indian pluralistic ethos once again under challenge by attempts to homogenize and radicalize society around dogmas and creeds?” asks Rajeev Bhargava, interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars 2014. He contends that the threat is real, but an entrenched pluralist ethos and a democratic tradition of checks and balances should be able to contend with it. If channeled correctly, these forces may be able to be contained within reasonable limits and even serve to strengthen Indian democracy.
- 26 May 2015According to Rajeev Bhargava, interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars 2014, Ashoka’s 7th edict is a lesson about public political morality in deeply diverse societies. It encourages people to evolve in their own respective religious-philosophical perspectives towards a mutual moral growth, by which the Other can be enriched. Today, we call this notion pluralism. Toleration, on the other hand, encourages living back to back with a lack of mutual interaction.
- 26 May 2015Rajeev Bhargava, a Professor at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in New Delhi and a scholar of issues concerning secularism, constitutionalism, and multiculturalism, looks at India during the 3rd century BCE to analyze the major social and intellectual transformation that took place under Ashoka’s rule. Bhargava contends that ritual sacrifice lost importance for a transcendental view in which the Other, the community, became of value. In his legendary edicts, Ashoka engaged in finding answers about how to live together in spite of difference. Bhargava was interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars 2014.
- 25 May 2011A special issue of the Indian magazine Seminar for Reset-Doc and an essay by Mujibur Rehman about the Muslim minority in India.
