WHEN NEW VALUES BECOME OLD VALUES: THE DECLINE AND REDISCOVERY OF PUBLIC REASONING
– Professor Rehman Sobhan
The paper seeks to explore the retreat from what was once proclaimed by Sarwar Murshid as his new values and the gradual closure of spaces available for public reasoning. Such an exploration requires that I revisit the foundational values of our state and discuss their sustainability within a world and society which remains in a state of constant turmoil. In the process I hope to track the decline of public reasoning which has emerged as a consequence and also a cause of our distancing from our foundational project. It may be argued that the once ‘new values’ have become old and outmoded in an age where development and change are considered by some to be the driving force of our society.
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