Abstract
To fully appreciate postcolonialism in terms of Gandhi’s social philosophy and theology we can explore his ideas in contrast with other systems of thought. By briefly examining American Pragmatism, especially C. S. Peirce, and German Idealism, especially G. W. F. Hegel, we can highlight the originality of Gandhi’s thinking. Gandhi remains very relevant to social theory today. George Grant, the Canadian syncretic thinker, is the only Western thinker who comes close, but Grant still relies too heavily on a limited theological framework. The Pragmatists and Idealists did not anticipate the deconstruction of the overseas colonies and the imperial relationship. However, globalization in some ways goes beyond Gandhi’s thinking as well.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Ben Anderson, Kevin Anderson, Randall Collins, Christopher Chase-Dunn, Harry Dahms, Glen Filson, Ananta Kumar Giri, Uta Gerhardt, Hildred Geertz, Lauren Langman, Victor Lidz, Larry Nichols, Dmitri Shalin, Jonathan Turner, Stephen Turner, Immanuel Wallerstein, Tony Winson, and Irving Zeitlin for their work (and conversations with most of them), all of which helped motivate me. All errors are my own.
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Bakker, J.(.I. (2021). Gandhi, Hegel and Freedom: Aufhebungen, Pragmatism and Ideal Type Models. In: Giri, A.K. (eds) Pragmatism, Spirituality and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7102-2_12
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