
The book offers a critical synthesis of critical theory, decolonial theory and Buddhist/Confucian inspired social theory.
Written with flair and imagination, Michael Murphy's exciting and thoughtful book rethinks the relationship of self and other in critical conversation with Gerard Delanty's cosmopolitanism and Walter Mignolo's decolonial theory. By pollinating this engaging dialogue with Watsuji Tetsuro' original concepts and perspectives, the book aspires to shed a new, valuable light on theorizations of temporal and spatial modalities of modernity.
This book makes a significant contribution to critical cosmopolitanism. It brings together different traditions of cosmopolitan thought in and opens the field to Japanese philosophy. It is a thoughtful and insightful analysis.
Michael Murphy succeeds in an extraordinarily ambitious task: to radically rethink critical cosmopolitan social theory as developed by Gerard Delanty and Walter Mignolo through an application of the central ideas of Watsuji Tetsurō, one of Japan's most significant modern philosophers and perhaps the world's first truly global thinker. Highly recommended for scholars and students of contemporary social theory and/or comparative thought.