In this book, religious studies scholar Whitney Bauman aims "to think about new ways of understanding self and other beyond substance based notions of identity" (1). His project is two-fold, both critical and constructive. His critique aims to "destabilize" our understandings of science, nature, religion, and identity; his constructive project is to build a "planetary ethic" that is adequate to our present situation. This ethic is anti-foundationalist with a vengeance, and for much of the book the critical task takes center stage. Bauman's critique of modern Western science echoes the work of Carolyn Merchant, Sandra Harding, and other feminist scholars. The key problem, for Bauman, as for these other scholars, is the relationship between science and knowledge, and in particular the theoretical and practical damage done by foundationalism—the belief in firm first principles underlying moral and philosophical claims—and universalism—the conviction that such claims have global applicability. Bau-man proposes infinite regress, in which "there is no stop to the slippage of knowledge claims," as a better way of understanding the fluid and interrelated worlds in which we live (20).
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