New Books in Religion

Adam B. Seligman and Robert P. Weller, "How Things Count as the Same: Memory, Mimesis, and Metaphor" (Oxford UP, 2019)


Listen Later

In How Things Count as the Same: Memory, Mimesis, and Metaphor (Oxford UP, 2019), Adam B. Seligman and Robert P. Weller address a seemingly simple question: What counts as the same? Given the myriad differences that divide one individual from another, why do we recognize anyone as somehow sharing a common fate with us? For that matter, how do we live in harmony with groups who may not share the sense of a common fate? Such relationships lie at the heart of the problems of pluralism that increasingly face so much of the world today.

Note that "counting as" the same differs from "being" the same. Counting as the same is not an empirical question about how much or how little one person shares with another or one event shares with a previous event. Nothing is actually the same. That is why, as humans, we construct sameness all the time. In the process, of course, we also construct difference.

Creating sameness and difference leaves us with the perennial problem of how to live with difference instead of seeing it as a threat. How Things Count as the Same suggests that there are multiple ways in which we can count things as the same, and that each of them fosters different kinds of group dynamics and different sets of benefits and risks for the creation of plural societies. While there might be many ways to understand how people construct sameness, three stand out as especially important and form the focus of the book's analysis: Memory, Mimesis, and Metaphor.

Theo Stapleton is a PhD student in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University, whose fieldwork was conducted at the first Chinese Buddhist temple in Tanzania.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in ReligionBy New Books Network

  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3

4.3

27 ratings


More shows like New Books in Religion

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,400 Listeners

Philosopher's Zone by ABC listen

Philosopher's Zone

208 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

38,173 Listeners

Homebrewed Christianity by Dr. Tripp Fuller

Homebrewed Christianity

569 Listeners

New Books in History by Marshall Poe

New Books in History

209 Listeners

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast by Mark Linsenmayer, Wes Alwan, Seth Paskin, Dylan Casey

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

2,089 Listeners

New Books in Psychoanalysis by Marshall Poe

New Books in Psychoanalysis

190 Listeners

New Books in Military History by Marshall Poe

New Books in Military History

163 Listeners

New Books in African American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in African American Studies

161 Listeners

New Books in Anthropology by New Books Network

New Books in Anthropology

49 Listeners

New Books in Environmental Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Environmental Studies

18 Listeners

New Books in Political Science by New Books Network

New Books in Political Science

63 Listeners

New Books in Philosophy by New Books Network

New Books in Philosophy

110 Listeners

New Books in Native American Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Native American Studies

104 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,899 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

292 Listeners

New Books in Critical Theory by Marshall Poe

New Books in Critical Theory

143 Listeners

New Books in Intellectual History by New Books Network

New Books in Intellectual History

62 Listeners

Philosophize This! by Stephen West

Philosophize This!

15,041 Listeners

Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

Making Sense with Sam Harris

26,409 Listeners

London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

London Review Bookshop Podcast

123 Listeners

Why Theory by Why Theory

Why Theory

561 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

12,736 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,216 Listeners

Empire by Goalhanger

Empire

2,045 Listeners