Towards a neo-Kantian Buddhism or a neo-Buddhist Kantianism : a critique of existing normative thought in international relations and international political economy
I have used the terms ~neo~ in my title since, in the end, a sense of modesty overcame me as I contemplated the vast fields I had to synthesise. This thesis is dedicated to two enterprises (the word 'projects' seems too brief a term), these being a critique of the broad canon of mainstream normative theory in International Relations (IR) - this done against the author's close reading, over several years, of Kant and Hegel, extensively, in German - and the so-called new canon of International Political Economy, as it seeks to push itself towards its rebirth as Global Political Economy (GPE); and construction of a radically different and new ethical premise for IR and GPE together. This is based on the Theravada School of Buddhism and takes up Stephen Chan's complaint that the Third World ~Other~ knows so much of us, but we know so little that is theirs. This thesis brings some of their discourses into ours, and seeks to demonstrate the uncanny similarities between Kant and Theravada, arguing furthermore the superiority of Theravada for our normative project. The author argues against Frost's Hegelian project, against the essential self-containment of Rawls, and continues the aeons-long tradition of Theravada,
Watkin-Kolb, Regina
Towards a neo-Kantian Buddhism or a neo-Buddhist Kantianism : a critique of existing normative thought in international relations and international political economy. I have used the terms ~neo~ in my title since, in the end, a sense of modesty overcame me as I contemplated the vast fields I had to synthesise. This thesis is dedicated to two enterprises (the word 'projects' seems too brief a term), these being a critique of the broad canon of mainstream normative theory in International Relations (IR) - this done against the author's close reading, over several years, of Kant and Hegel, extensively, in German - and the so-called new canon of International Political Economy, as it seeks to push itself towards its rebirth as Global Political Economy (GPE); and construction of a radically different and new ethical premise for IR and GPE together. This is based on the Theravada School of Buddhism and takes up Stephen Chan's complaint that the Third World ~Other~ knows so much of us, but we know so little that is theirs. This thesis brings some of their discourses into ours, and seeks to demonstrate the uncanny similarities between Kant and Theravada, arguing furthermore the superiority of Theravada for our normative project. The author argues against Frost's Hegelian project, against the essential self-containment of Rawls, and continues the aeons-long tradition of Theravada,
towards neo_kantian buddhism neo buddhist critique exist normative think international_relation international political_economy use term neo title since_end sense modesty overcame contemplate vast field synthesise dedicate enterprise word projects seem brief term critique broad canon mainstream normative theory international_relations author close_reading kant_hegel extensively german so_called new canon international political_economy seek push towards rebirth global political_economy construction radically_different new ethical premise together base theravada school buddhism take complaint third_world other know much know_little brings discourse seek similarity kant theravada argue furthermore superiority theravada normative project author argue hegelian project essential self containment rawls continue long_tradition theravada