Why this book?
- To understand Dariush Shayegan's perspective on the encounter between East and West.
- To grasp the concept of Westoxification and the identity crisis in Asian civilizations.
- To study the nexus between history, philosophy, and civilization.
- For those interested in the philosophy of culture and contemporary Iranian thought.
About the book
Asia Against the West is one of Dariush Shayegan's most important works on the relationship between Asian civilizations and the modern Western world. In this book, Shayegan attempts to examine the fundamental differences between Eastern and Western modes of thought and to analyze Asia's historical position in the face of the trajectory of Western intellectual evolution.
The book is organized into two main parts. The first part addresses nihilism and its impact on the historical destiny of Asian civilizations, and by examining the ideas of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, it dissects phenomena such as collective Westoxification, the crisis of thought, and cultural rupture. The second part is dedicated to examining the major centers of Asian culture, including Iran, India, China, and Japan, in the face of the course of Western intellectual evolution.
This work holds an important place in Shayegan's intellectual trajectory and is considered one of the influential works in the field of the philosophy of culture and comparative thought. Asia Against the West is suitable for readers interested in the history of thought, the encounter between tradition and modernity, and the identity issues of non-Western societies.
It is the bedrock of the evolution of Western thought that has had a systematic course from top to bottom, from intuitive thinking to a technical worldview, from otherworldliness and eschatology to historicism. Judging whether this development has been in the direction of progress or decline depends on the view we hold of history and the destiny of humanity. Asian civilizations, in their current state, are in a period of interregnum; understanding how this period of interregnum is and what its nature is, is a subject we wish to dissect and explore in this treatise.
From the table of contents
- 1Nihilism and Its Impact on the Historical Destiny of Asian Civilizations
- 2The Position of Asian Civilizations in the Face of the Course of Western Intellectual Evolution