Available Light: Anthropological Reflections on Philosophical Topics

In cadenced prose, noted anthropologist Geertz examines his own life, education and work and the ways in which the fields of anthropology and philosophy might benefit each other, in a collection of essays reprinted from such journals as the Antioch Review and Common Knowledge. His recollections of the intellectual excitement in post-War World II colleges, filled with people on the brink of a new life and paid for by the G.I. Bill, reveal an intriguing facet of American intellectual history as well as the author's roots as an anthropologist. His now-famous fieldwork in Java in 1952 becomes a point of departure for other intellectual explorations. Geertz can be quite provocative--in discussing the ethical dimensions of anthropology, he concludes that ""thought is conduct and is to be morally judged as such."" He is also exacting, as when he claims that ""anthropologists will simply have to make something of subtler differences, and their writing will grow more shrewd."" His most challenging arguments for contemporary thinkers come at the end, when he discusses the impact of postmodernism on various disciplines and whether cohesive identities are possible in our world. Carefully teasing out how the study of cultural ""differences"" and ""similarities"" can work--""the trick is to get them to illuminate one another""--Geertz once again makes an important contribution to how we think and live in the world today. (May)