This book establishes a new analytic approach to understanding fundamental political ideas of other cultures and time periods, applying the approach to a study of ancient Greek and Indian conceptions of rule. This cross-cultural study provides a defense for the importance of rule in contemporary political life, arguing that anthropocentric and instrumentalist conceptions of rule have led to destructive consequences for the welfare of both human and nonhuman life. Therefore, this book seeks to rethink the meaning of rule by critically retrieving and examining premodern ideas in both the West an ... More

This book establishes a new analytic approach to understanding fundamental political ideas of other cultures and time periods, applying the approach to a study of ancient Greek and Indian conceptions of rule. This cross-cultural study provides a defense for the importance of rule in contemporary political life, arguing that anthropocentric and instrumentalist conceptions of rule have led to destructive consequences for the welfare of both human and nonhuman life. Therefore, this book seeks to rethink the meaning of rule by critically retrieving and examining premodern ideas in both the West and South Asia. Conflicting cosmological and anthropocentric origins for rule in the history of Western political thought can be located in ancient Greece, particularly in the influential works of Homer and Hesiod. In contrast to a more human-centered and strongly individualistic conception of rule as “distinction” in Greece is an alternative understanding of rule as “stewardship” that appears in early Indian thought. A critical assessment of these two traditions not only provides a novel interpretation of each but also supplies a new framework for theorizing the meaning of rule that better accounts for relations between humans and nonhuman nature. The book thus outlines a new conception of rule as “panocracy,” which expands the ethical horizon for understanding humans’ political effect and responsibilities in an increasingly interconnected, fragile world. This culturally hybrid vision of ruling entails duties of stewardship toward nonhuman nature and involvement in processes of world-building on a global scale.