ABSTRACT
It is evident that the rationalist and reflectivist theorizations in Eurocentric IR presume an ‘ontological dualism’ which compulsorily endorses an immanent ‘subject–object distinction’ – that is, they accept the subject and the object of a knowledge-situation as two separated entities. However, this knowledge-situation marked with a subject–object distinction is problematized via the ancient Indian philosophy of Advaita (literally meaning ‘non-dual’) that explicates three knowledge-situations that correspond to three levels of being: ‘Reality’ (brahman) as ‘oneness of being’, ‘Appearance’ (jagat) as ‘multiplicity of being’, and ‘Unreality’ (tuchchha) as ‘non-being’. While the Eurocentric understanding of international politics is mainly preoccupied with the ontology of ‘Appearance’ (jagat) or the idea of ‘multiplicity of being’ fraught with a dualist subject–object distinction, this chapter sets out to demonstrate how the further incorporation of the Advaitic ontological realms of ‘Reality’ (brahman) as ‘oneness of being’ and ‘Unreality’ (tuchchha) as ‘non-being’ opens up the possibility of a monist ‘subject–object merger’ or ‘subject–object collapse’ (that is, a potential annihilation of the dualist subject–object distinction at the level of ‘consciousness’), thereby suggesting a fundamental review of the customary principles of international politics in Eurocentric IR.
