The generation of meaning is the primary precondition for acting and thinking. The essays in this volume contribute to a discourse on this matter with a decentred, globalized world in mind. The notions civilization, humanism and modernity - far from being exclusively Western ideas - may facilitate joint efforts of reflecting on the universality of current human conditions, particularly since such reflexion is possible from particular cultural perspectives. Modernity presents us with a second Axial Time in which the quest for a plural, but shared, humane world is the challenge.

This book presents a close reading of the work of the Mexican writer and Nobel Prize Laureate, Octavio Paz. It does so from the specific perspective of sociology and the more general perspective of the social sciences. The book identifies opportunities for relating Paz sociological ideas to contemporary debates, arguing that Paz sociology is linked very closely to his assessment of what could be called the post-colonial condition that Mexico has been experiencing. The book thus advances the understanding of the differences between post-colonial experiences in Latin America and those of other...