"What makes something social? Is human social reality, the object-domain of the human sciences, essentially opaque to the explanatory method of nomological objectivity that characterizes the physical sciences? Do historical and cultural underpinnings of human existence severely restrain the ambition of objectivity in the human sciences? Or, is there a sui generis paradigm of social objectivity in social enquiry, such as illustrated by Marxism and Ethnomethodology? Besides, do diversity of traditions constrain social understanding in a way that inevitably results in cultural relativism? What does understanding tradition consist in, including whatever we might mean by the Indian tradition? These questions about humanity and tradition are dealt with in this book from a variety of interesting perspectives. Together these various modes of understanding provide an illuminating account of human self-understanding in social enquiry."

Why do people respond emotionally to fiction when they know that it is only make-believe? This question which is fundamental to aesthetics and literary studies, is here tackled from a new perspective. The author first discusses the various answers that have been offered by philosophers form Aristotle to Roger Scruton. He shows that while some philosophers have denied any rational basis to our emotional responses to fiction, others have argued that the emotions evoked by fiction are not real emotions at all. In contrast, Dr Boruah argues that fictional emotions are rational, and that they are based on the same sorts of beliefs that we form about real situations and real people. He illustrates his discussion throughout by an extensive use of literary examples, ranging from Shakespeare to Tolstoy.