Argyrou critiques modern and postmodern anthropology, highlighting the self-centered nature of anthropological humanism. The book delves into the implications of this perspective, challenging conventional views and encouraging readers to reconsider the foundations of anthropological thought. Through a thoughtful analysis, it invites a reevaluation of the discipline's assumptions and practices.
Although modernity’s understanding of nature and culture has now been superseded by that of environmentalism, the power to define the meaning of both, and hence the meaning of the world itself, remains in the same (Western) hands. This bold argument is at the center of this provocative book that challenges the widespread assumption that environmentalism reflects a radical departure from modernity. Our perception of nature may have changed, the author maintains, but environmentalism remains a thoroughly modernist project. It reproduces the cultural logic of modernity, a logic that finds meaning in unity and therefore strives to efface difference, and to reconfirm the position of the West as the source of all legitimate signification.
Challenging the notion of European thought as a benevolent gift, this book posits that all intellectual exchange operates within an economy of reciprocal giving and taking. It introduces the concept of an "economy of thought" and a "political economy," asserting that every act of thinking and doing involves inherent costs. The author critiques the Enlightenment ideal of autonomous thinking, revealing that the promise of free thought is an illusion, ultimately questioning the value of what has been presented as a gift to the world.