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Black Existence in Philosophy of Culture
- Lewis R. Gordon
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This article examines an Africana philosophy of culture of black existence through, after offering a critique of a theodicy of textuality and social reality, exploration of the construction of “problem people,” of people whose existence, marked by blackness, has been treated as a challenge to reason and the search for knowledge in the modern world. As Africana philosophy raises concerns of philosophical anthropology, philosophy of freedom, and a metacritique of reason, it offers, as well, a case for the central importance of philosophy of culture in modern and late modern thought.
12 - Relationality and political commitment
- Edited by Anthony Morgan
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- Book:
- What Matters Most
- Published by:
- Agenda Publishing
- Published online:
- 23 January 2024
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- 18 May 2023, pp 107-114
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Summary
Our Euromodern philosophical inheritance via thinkers like Hobbes, Locke and Mill is of an atomistic and non-relational being who thinks, acts and moves along a course in which continued movement depends on not colliding with others. In this conversation, Lewis R. Gordon proposes a relational model of humanity inherited from southern Africa, Asia, South America, and even parts of continental Europe. For Gordon, this relational understanding of ourselves allows for the opening up and transformation of the possibilities of being human, all the way through to rethinking our institutional and political relations. While the Euromodern model views political commitment through the self-interested prism of success and failure, the relational model represents a profound critique of how most of us have come to fix action at an individual level. Seen in this light, Gordon argues that we must rethink the philosophical anthropology at the heart of a specific line of Euromodern thought on what it means to be human.
LEWIS R. GORDON is Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut. His work spans Africana philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, social and political theory, postcolonial thought, theories of race and racism, philosophies of liberation, aesthetics, philosophy of education and philosophy of religion.
OLÚFÉ.MI O. TÁÍWÒ is an assistant professor of philosophy at Georgetown University. His theoretical work draws from the Black radical tradition, anti-colonial thought, philosophy of language, contemporary social science, and histories of activism and activist thinkers.
Olúfé.mi O. Táíwò (OOT): In your work, political responsibility is something that goes beyond moral responsibility, and certainly beyond moralism. You use the example of Harriet Bailey to exemplify one model of political responsibility. Harriet Bailey was the mother of abolitionist and political thinker Frederick Douglass, and the two of them were separated at birth, which was a common aspect of chattel slavery at the time. When Douglass was around seven years old, Bailey found out that she was enslaved on a plantation 12 miles away from where he was growing up, and she walked the distance in the evenings to spend time with him into dawn, when she returned to the fields. Shortly after this, she died. Why do you see Harriet Bailey as an exemplar of your idea of political responsibility?
What Does It Mean to Colonise and Decolonise Philosophy?
- Lewis R. Gordon
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- Journal:
- Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements / Volume 93 / May 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 18 May 2023, pp. 117-135
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- May 2023
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What does it mean for philosophy to be ‘colonised’ and what are some of the challenges involved in ‘decolonising’ it in philosophical and political terms? After distinguishing between philosophy and its practice as a professional enterprise, I explore six ways in which philosophy, at least as understood in its Euromodern form, could be interpreted as colonised: (1) Eurocentrism and its asserted racial and ethnic origins/misrepresentations of philosophy's history, (2) coloniality of its norms, (3) market commodification of the discipline, (4) disciplinary decadence, (5) solipsism, and (6) appeals to redemptive narratives of colonial practice. The remainder of the article examines conditions for decolonising philosophy, which include unlocking its potential as a liberatory practice, identifying its humanistic dimensions, rethinking metaphysical assumptions, and embracing political responsibility wrought from the production of knowledge.
The Evolutionary Map of the Universe Pilot Survey – ADDENDUM
- Ray P. Norris, Joshua Marvil, J. D. Collier, Anna D. Kapińska, Andrew N. O’Brien, L. Rudnick, Heinz Andernach, Jacobo Asorey, Michael J. I. Brown, Marcus Brüggen, Evan Crawford, Jayanne English, Syed Faisal ur Rahman, Miroslav D. Filipović, Yjan Gordon, Gülay Gürkan, Catherine Hale, Andrew M. Hopkins, Minh T. Huynh, Kim HyeongHan, M. James Jee, Bärbel S. Koribalski, Emil Lenc, Kieran Luken, David Parkinson, Isabella Prandoni, Wasim Raja, Thomas H. Reiprich, Christopher J. Riseley, Stanislav S. Shabala, Jaimie R. Sheil, Tessa Vernstrom, Matthew T. Whiting, James R. Allison, C. S. Anderson, Lewis Ball, Martin Bell, John Bunton, T. J. Galvin, Neeraj Gupta, Aidan Hotan, Colin Jacka, Peter J. Macgregor, Elizabeth K. Mahony, Umberto Maio, Vanessa Moss, M. Pandey-Pommier, Maxim A. Voronkov
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- Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia / Volume 39 / 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 November 2022, e055
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The Evolutionary Map of the Universe pilot survey
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- Ray P. Norris, Joshua Marvil, J. D. Collier, Anna D. Kapińska, Andrew N. O’Brien, L. Rudnick, Heinz Andernach, Jacobo Asorey, Michael J. I. Brown, Marcus Brüggen, Evan Crawford, Jayanne English, Syed Faisal ur Rahman, Miroslav D. Filipović, Yjan Gordon, Gülay Gürkan, Catherine Hale, Andrew M. Hopkins, Minh T. Huynh, Kim HyeongHan, M. James Jee, Bärbel S. Koribalski, Emil Lenc, Kieran Luken, David Parkinson, Isabella Prandoni, Wasim Raja, Thomas H. Reiprich, Christopher J. Riseley, Stanislav S. Shabala, Jaimie R. Sheil, Tessa Vernstrom, Matthew T. Whiting, James R. Allison, C. S. Anderson, Lewis Ball, Martin Bell, John Bunton, T. J. Galvin, Neeraj Gupta, Aidan Hotan, Colin Jacka, Peter J. Macgregor, Elizabeth K. Mahony, Umberto Maio, Vanessa Moss, M. Pandey-Pommier, Maxim A. Voronkov
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- Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia / Volume 38 / 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 September 2021, e046
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We present the data and initial results from the first pilot survey of the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), observed at 944 MHz with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. The survey covers $270 \,\mathrm{deg}^2$ of an area covered by the Dark Energy Survey, reaching a depth of 25–30 $\mu\mathrm{Jy\ beam}^{-1}$ rms at a spatial resolution of $\sim$ 11–18 arcsec, resulting in a catalogue of $\sim$ 220 000 sources, of which $\sim$ 180 000 are single-component sources. Here we present the catalogue of single-component sources, together with (where available) optical and infrared cross-identifications, classifications, and redshifts. This survey explores a new region of parameter space compared to previous surveys. Specifically, the EMU Pilot Survey has a high density of sources, and also a high sensitivity to low surface brightness emission. These properties result in the detection of types of sources that were rarely seen in or absent from previous surveys. We present some of these new results here.
IRIS: an Infrared Imager and Spectrometer for the Anglo-Australian Telescope
- David A. Allen, John R. Barton, Michael G. Burton, Helen Davies, Tony J. Farrell, Peter R. Gillingham, Allan F. Lankshear, Paul L. Lindner, Donald J. Mayfield, Vikki S. Meadows, Gordon E. Schafer, Keith Shortridge, Jason Spyromilio, John O. Straede, Lewis G. Waller, Denis L. Whittard
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- Journal:
- Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia / Volume 10 / Issue 4 / 1993
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 April 2016, pp. 298-309
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We describe a versatile infrared camera/spectrograph, IRIS, designed and constructed at the Anglo-Australian Observatory for use on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. A variety of optical configurations can be selected under remote control to provide several direct image scales and a few low-resolution spectroscopic formats. Two cross-dispersed transmission echelles are of novel design, as is the use of a modified Bowen-Burch system to provide a fast f/ratio in the widest-field option. The drive electronics includes a choice of readout schemes for versatility, and continuous display when the array is not taking data, to facilitate field acquisition and focusing.
The linearity of the detector has been studied in detail. Although outwardly good, slight nonlinearities prevent removal of fixed-pattern noise from the data without application of a cubic linearising function.
Specific control and data-reduction software has been written. We describe also a scanning mode developed for spectroscopic imaging.
Contributors
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- By Mitchell Aboulafia, Frederick Adams, Marilyn McCord Adams, Robert M. Adams, Laird Addis, James W. Allard, David Allison, William P. Alston, Karl Ameriks, C. Anthony Anderson, David Leech Anderson, Lanier Anderson, Roger Ariew, David Armstrong, Denis G. Arnold, E. J. Ashworth, Margaret Atherton, Robin Attfield, Bruce Aune, Edward Wilson Averill, Jody Azzouni, Kent Bach, Andrew Bailey, Lynne Rudder Baker, Thomas R. Baldwin, Jon Barwise, George Bealer, William Bechtel, Lawrence C. Becker, Mark A. Bedau, Ernst Behler, José A. Benardete, Ermanno Bencivenga, Jan Berg, Michael Bergmann, Robert L. Bernasconi, Sven Bernecker, Bernard Berofsky, Rod Bertolet, Charles J. Beyer, Christian Beyer, Joseph Bien, Joseph Bien, Peg Birmingham, Ivan Boh, James Bohman, Daniel Bonevac, Laurence BonJour, William J. Bouwsma, Raymond D. Bradley, Myles Brand, Richard B. Brandt, Michael E. Bratman, Stephen E. Braude, Daniel Breazeale, Angela Breitenbach, Jason Bridges, David O. Brink, Gordon G. Brittan, Justin Broackes, Dan W. Brock, Aaron Bronfman, Jeffrey E. Brower, Bartosz Brozek, Anthony Brueckner, Jeffrey Bub, Lara Buchak, Otavio Bueno, Ann E. Bumpus, Robert W. Burch, John Burgess, Arthur W. Burks, Panayot Butchvarov, Robert E. Butts, Marina Bykova, Patrick Byrne, David Carr, Noël Carroll, Edward S. Casey, Victor Caston, Victor Caston, Albert Casullo, Robert L. Causey, Alan K. L. Chan, Ruth Chang, Deen K. Chatterjee, Andrew Chignell, Roderick M. Chisholm, Kelly J. Clark, E. J. Coffman, Robin Collins, Brian P. Copenhaver, John Corcoran, John Cottingham, Roger Crisp, Frederick J. Crosson, Antonio S. Cua, Phillip D. Cummins, Martin Curd, Adam Cureton, Andrew Cutrofello, Stephen Darwall, Paul Sheldon Davies, Wayne A. Davis, Timothy Joseph Day, Claudio de Almeida, Mario De Caro, Mario De Caro, John Deigh, C. F. Delaney, Daniel C. Dennett, Michael R. DePaul, Michael Detlefsen, Daniel Trent Devereux, Philip E. Devine, John M. Dillon, Martin C. Dillon, Robert DiSalle, Mary Domski, Alan Donagan, Paul Draper, Fred Dretske, Mircea Dumitru, Wilhelm Dupré, Gerald Dworkin, John Earman, Ellery Eells, Catherine Z. Elgin, Berent Enç, Ronald P. Endicott, Edward Erwin, John Etchemendy, C. Stephen Evans, Susan L. Feagin, Solomon Feferman, Richard Feldman, Arthur Fine, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, William FitzPatrick, Richard E. Flathman, Gvozden Flego, Richard Foley, Graeme Forbes, Rainer Forst, Malcolm R. Forster, Daniel Fouke, Patrick Francken, Samuel Freeman, Elizabeth Fricker, Miranda Fricker, Michael Friedman, Michael Fuerstein, Richard A. Fumerton, Alan Gabbey, Pieranna Garavaso, Daniel Garber, Jorge L. A. Garcia, Robert K. Garcia, Don Garrett, Philip Gasper, Gerald Gaus, Berys Gaut, Bernard Gert, Roger F. Gibson, Cody Gilmore, Carl Ginet, Alan H. Goldman, Alvin I. Goldman, Alfonso Gömez-Lobo, Lenn E. Goodman, Robert M. Gordon, Stefan Gosepath, Jorge J. E. Gracia, Daniel W. Graham, George A. Graham, Peter J. Graham, Richard E. Grandy, I. Grattan-Guinness, John Greco, Philip T. Grier, Nicholas Griffin, Nicholas Griffin, David A. Griffiths, Paul J. Griffiths, Stephen R. Grimm, Charles L. Griswold, Charles B. Guignon, Pete A. Y. Gunter, Dimitri Gutas, Gary Gutting, Paul Guyer, Kwame Gyekye, Oscar A. Haac, Raul Hakli, Raul Hakli, Michael Hallett, Edward C. Halper, Jean Hampton, R. James Hankinson, K. R. Hanley, Russell Hardin, Robert M. Harnish, William Harper, David Harrah, Kevin Hart, Ali Hasan, William Hasker, John Haugeland, Roger Hausheer, William Heald, Peter Heath, Richard Heck, John F. Heil, Vincent F. Hendricks, Stephen Hetherington, Francis Heylighen, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Risto Hilpinen, Harold T. Hodes, Joshua Hoffman, Alan Holland, Robert L. Holmes, Richard Holton, Brad W. Hooker, Terence E. Horgan, Tamara Horowitz, Paul Horwich, Vittorio Hösle, Paul Hoβfeld, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Frances Howard-Snyder, Anne Hudson, Deal W. Hudson, Carl A. Huffman, David L. Hull, Patricia Huntington, Thomas Hurka, Paul Hurley, Rosalind Hursthouse, Guillermo Hurtado, Ronald E. Hustwit, Sarah Hutton, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa, Harry A. Ide, David Ingram, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Alfred L. Ivry, Frank Jackson, Dale Jacquette, Joseph Jedwab, Richard Jeffrey, David Alan Johnson, Edward Johnson, Mark D. Jordan, Richard Joyce, Hwa Yol Jung, Robert Hillary Kane, Tomis Kapitan, Jacquelyn Ann K. Kegley, James A. Keller, Ralph Kennedy, Sergei Khoruzhii, Jaegwon Kim, Yersu Kim, Nathan L. King, Patricia Kitcher, Peter D. Klein, E. D. Klemke, Virginia Klenk, George L. Kline, Christian Klotz, Simo Knuuttila, Joseph J. Kockelmans, Konstantin Kolenda, Sebastian Tomasz Kołodziejczyk, Isaac Kramnick, Richard Kraut, Fred Kroon, Manfred Kuehn, Steven T. Kuhn, Henry E. Kyburg, John Lachs, Jennifer Lackey, Stephen E. Lahey, Andrea Lavazza, Thomas H. Leahey, Joo Heung Lee, Keith Lehrer, Dorothy Leland, Noah M. Lemos, Ernest LePore, Sarah-Jane Leslie, Isaac Levi, Andrew Levine, Alan E. Lewis, Daniel E. Little, Shu-hsien Liu, Shu-hsien Liu, Alan K. L. Chan, Brian Loar, Lawrence B. Lombard, John Longeway, Dominic McIver Lopes, Michael J. Loux, E. J. Lowe, Steven Luper, Eugene C. Luschei, William G. Lycan, David Lyons, David Macarthur, Danielle Macbeth, Scott MacDonald, Jacob L. Mackey, Louis H. Mackey, Penelope Mackie, Edward H. Madden, Penelope Maddy, G. B. Madison, Bernd Magnus, Pekka Mäkelä, Rudolf A. Makkreel, David Manley, William E. Mann (W.E.M.), Vladimir Marchenkov, Peter Markie, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Ausonio Marras, Mike W. Martin, A. P. Martinich, William L. McBride, David McCabe, Storrs McCall, Hugh J. McCann, Robert N. McCauley, John J. McDermott, Sarah McGrath, Ralph McInerny, Daniel J. McKaughan, Thomas McKay, Michael McKinsey, Brian P. McLaughlin, Ernan McMullin, Anthonie Meijers, Jack W. Meiland, William Jason Melanson, Alfred R. Mele, Joseph R. Mendola, Christopher Menzel, Michael J. Meyer, Christian B. Miller, David W. Miller, Peter Millican, Robert N. Minor, Phillip Mitsis, James A. Montmarquet, Michael S. Moore, Tim Moore, Benjamin Morison, Donald R. Morrison, Stephen J. Morse, Paul K. Moser, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, Ian Mueller, James Bernard Murphy, Mark C. Murphy, Steven Nadler, Jan Narveson, Alan Nelson, Jerome Neu, Samuel Newlands, Kai Nielsen, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Carlos G. Noreña, Calvin G. Normore, David Fate Norton, Nikolaj Nottelmann, Donald Nute, David S. Oderberg, Steve Odin, Michael O’Rourke, Willard G. Oxtoby, Heinz Paetzold, George S. Pappas, Anthony J. Parel, Lydia Patton, R. P. Peerenboom, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Adriaan T. Peperzak, Derk Pereboom, Jaroslav Peregrin, Glen Pettigrove, Philip Pettit, Edmund L. Pincoffs, Andrew Pinsent, Robert B. Pippin, Alvin Plantinga, Louis P. Pojman, Richard H. Popkin, John F. Post, Carl J. Posy, William J. Prior, Richard Purtill, Michael Quante, Philip L. Quinn, Philip L. Quinn, Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, Diana Raffman, Gerard Raulet, Stephen L. Read, Andrews Reath, Andrew Reisner, Nicholas Rescher, Henry S. Richardson, Robert C. Richardson, Thomas Ricketts, Wayne D. Riggs, Mark Roberts, Robert C. Roberts, Luke Robinson, Alexander Rosenberg, Gary Rosenkranz, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Adina L. Roskies, William L. Rowe, T. M. Rudavsky, Michael Ruse, Bruce Russell, Lilly-Marlene Russow, Dan Ryder, R. M. Sainsbury, Joseph Salerno, Nathan Salmon, Wesley C. Salmon, Constantine Sandis, David H. Sanford, Marco Santambrogio, David Sapire, Ruth A. Saunders, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, Charles Sayward, James P. Scanlan, Richard Schacht, Tamar Schapiro, Frederick F. Schmitt, Jerome B. Schneewind, Calvin O. Schrag, Alan D. Schrift, George F. Schumm, Jean-Loup Seban, David N. Sedley, Kenneth Seeskin, Krister Segerberg, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Dennis M. Senchuk, James F. Sennett, William Lad Sessions, Stewart Shapiro, Tommie Shelby, Donald W. Sherburne, Christopher Shields, Roger A. Shiner, Sydney Shoemaker, Robert K. Shope, Kwong-loi Shun, Wilfried Sieg, A. John Simmons, Robert L. Simon, Marcus G. Singer, Georgette Sinkler, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Matti T. Sintonen, Lawrence Sklar, Brian Skyrms, Robert C. Sleigh, Michael Anthony Slote, Hans Sluga, Barry Smith, Michael Smith, Robin Smith, Robert Sokolowski, Robert C. Solomon, Marta Soniewicka, Philip Soper, Ernest Sosa, Nicholas Southwood, Paul Vincent Spade, T. L. S. Sprigge, Eric O. Springsted, George J. Stack, Rebecca Stangl, Jason Stanley, Florian Steinberger, Sören Stenlund, Christopher Stephens, James P. Sterba, Josef Stern, Matthias Steup, M. A. Stewart, Leopold Stubenberg, Edith Dudley Sulla, Frederick Suppe, Jere Paul Surber, David George Sussman, Sigrún Svavarsdóttir, Zeno G. Swijtink, Richard Swinburne, Charles C. Taliaferro, Robert B. Talisse, John Tasioulas, Paul Teller, Larry S. Temkin, Mark Textor, H. S. Thayer, Peter Thielke, Alan Thomas, Amie L. Thomasson, Katherine Thomson-Jones, Joshua C. Thurow, Vzalerie Tiberius, Terrence N. Tice, Paul Tidman, Mark C. Timmons, William Tolhurst, James E. Tomberlin, Rosemarie Tong, Lawrence Torcello, Kelly Trogdon, J. D. Trout, Robert E. Tully, Raimo Tuomela, John Turri, Martin M. Tweedale, Thomas Uebel, Jennifer Uleman, James Van Cleve, Harry van der Linden, Peter van Inwagen, Bryan W. Van Norden, René van Woudenberg, Donald Phillip Verene, Samantha Vice, Thomas Vinci, Donald Wayne Viney, Barbara Von Eckardt, Peter B. M. Vranas, Steven J. Wagner, William J. Wainwright, Paul E. Walker, Robert E. Wall, Craig Walton, Douglas Walton, Eric Watkins, Richard A. Watson, Michael V. Wedin, Rudolph H. Weingartner, Paul Weirich, Paul J. Weithman, Carl Wellman, Howard Wettstein, Samuel C. Wheeler, Stephen A. White, Jennifer Whiting, Edward R. Wierenga, Michael Williams, Fred Wilson, W. Kent Wilson, Kenneth P. Winkler, John F. Wippel, Jan Woleński, Allan B. Wolter, Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, Rega Wood, W. Jay Wood, Paul Woodruff, Alison Wylie, Gideon Yaffe, Takashi Yagisawa, Yutaka Yamamoto, Keith E. Yandell, Xiaomei Yang, Dean Zimmerman, Günter Zoller, Catherine Zuckert, Michael Zuckert, Jack A. Zupko (J.A.Z.)
- Edited by Robert Audi, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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- Book:
- The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 August 2015
- Print publication:
- 27 April 2015, pp ix-xxx
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12 - On the Monstrous Threat of Reasoned Black Desire
- from IV - Epistemological Genealogies and Prospections
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- By Lewis R. Gordon, University of Connecticut at Storrs, USA
- Edited by Monica Michlin, Jean-Paul Rocchi
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- Black Intersectionalities
- Published by:
- Liverpool University Press
- Published online:
- 22 July 2017
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- 31 December 2013, pp 178-194
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There is a problem in the pursuit of knowledge that is peculiarly evident in the experience of many black graduate students. On the one hand, the student is often excited by the opportunity to pursue questions in a discipline whose resources for the advancement of knowledge have intoxicated him or her with a quest that may best be described as a faith in possibility. On the other hand, such a student often encounters subtle and at times not-so-subtle snippets of challenges to his or her intelligence that, in a context in which reputation about one's intelligence is paramount, is degrading. That student may resort to a defense mechanism that most scholars rely on – namely, the enduring value of ideas, of the life of the mind. But even in such retreat there is a lack of salvation since, as Frantz Fanon put it so well in 1952: “Quand je suis la, elle n'y est pas”; where it – in this case, reason – was, he was not (Fanon, 1952: 96).
Take the case of philosophy, where to seek such solace from its greatest voices often meant knocking at doors whose authors held signs tantamount to the phrase, “Whites only.” I recall, while a graduate student, discovering that most of my white peers went through a strange perceptual process when they read modern and contemporary canonical texts. When it came to the racist or sexist dimensions of the thought of authors such as John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, or G. W. Hegel, or even more recent exemplars such as Martin Heidegger or Bertrand Russell, they suffered from a blind spot, which, when pointed out, was often defended by their denial of the presence of bigotry in those authors’ writings: “Those things are not there,” they often proclaimed, or, after I showed them the offending passages, missed in spite of their previous “careful” readings, they argued that those sections were, in the end, harmless because, ultimately and supposedly, “irrelevant.” In one sense, it was as in the form of repression, as in the case where one might repeatedly walk along a beautifully adorned street without realizing, until after an enormous passage of time, that it includes a funeral parlor. At work was a form of theodicy in their readings of texts. They needed such dimensions to be extraneous.
Contributors
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- By Avishek Adhikari, Susanne E. Ahmari, Anne Marie Albano, Carlos Blanco, Desiree K. Caban, Jonathan S. Comer, Jeremy D. Coplan, Ana Alicia De La Cruz, Emily R. Doherty, Bruce Dohrenwend, Amit Etkin, Brian A. Fallon, Michael B. First, Abby J. Fyer, Angela Ghesquiere, Jay A. Gingrich, Robert A. Glick, Joshua A. Gordon, Ethan E. Gorenstein, Marco A. Grados, James P. Hambrick, James Hanks, Kelli Jane K. Harding, Richard G. Heimberg, Rene Hen, Devon E. Hinton, Myron A. Hofer, Matthew J. Kaplowitz, Sharaf S. Khan, Donald F. Klein, Karestan C. Koenen, E. David Leonardo, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Michael R. Liebowitz, Sarah H. Lisanby, Antonio Mantovani, John C. Markowitz, Patrick J. McGrath, Caitlin McOmish, Jeffrey M. Miller, Jan Mohlman, Elizabeth Sagurton Mulhare, Philip R. Muskin, Navin Arun Natarajan, Yuval Neria, Nicole R. Nugent, Mayumi Okuda, Mark Olfson, Laszlo A. Papp, Sapana R. Patel, Anthony Pinto, Kristin Pontoski, Jesse W. Richardson-Jones, Carolyn I. Rodriguez, Steven P. Roose, Moira A. Rynn, Franklin Schneier, M. Katherine Shear, Ranjeeb Shrestha, Helen Blair Simpson, Smit S. Sinha, Natalia Skritskaya, Jami Socha, Eun Jung Suh, Gregory M. Sullivan, Anthony J. Tranguch, Hilary B. Vidair, Tor D. Wager, Myrna M Weissman, Noelia V. Weisstaub
- Edited by Helen Blair Simpson, Columbia University, New York, Yuval Neria, Columbia University, New York, Roberto Lewis-Fernández, Columbia University, New York, Franklin Schneier, Columbia University, New York
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- Anxiety Disorders
- Published online:
- 10 November 2010
- Print publication:
- 26 August 2010, pp vii-xii
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Introduction: Africana philosophy in context
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
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- 01 May 2008, pp 1-18
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Summary
Africana philosophy is a species of Africana thought, which involves theoretical questions raised by critical engagements with ideas in Africana cultures and their hybrid, mixed, or creolized forms worldwide. Since there was no reason for the people of the African continent to have considered themselves African until that identity was imposed upon them through conquest and colonization in the modern era (the sixteenth century onward), this area of thought also refers to the unique set of questions raised by the emergence of “Africans” and their diaspora here designated by the term “Africana.” Such concerns include the convergence of most Africans with the racial term “black” and its many connotations. Africana philosophy refers to the philosophical dimensions of this area of thought.
There is, however, perhaps no greater controversy in philosophy than its definition. As we will see even the claim to its etymological origins in the Greek language is up for debate. This may seem rather odd since the word “philosophy” is a conjunction of the ancient Greek words philia, which means a form of respectful devotion, often defined as “brotherly love,” and sophia, which means “wisdom.” The source of controversy is that it could easily be shown, as scholars such as the Argentinean philosopher, historian, and theologian Enrique Dussel, the Irish political scientist and archaeolinguist Martin Bernal, and the Congolese philosopher, historian, and archaeologist Théophile Obenga have demonstrated, that these words are transformed versions of ancient Phoenician and Hittite words, which in turn are varied and adopted words from the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
Part I - Groundings
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
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- 01 May 2008, pp 19-20
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1 - Africana philosophy as a modern philosophy
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
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- 05 June 2012
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- 01 May 2008, pp 21-32
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There is much debate over the meaning and moment of “modernity.” In most North American philosophical courses, modernity begins more with a whom than with a when, and that person is René Descartes. In some fields, such as political philosophy, the who sometimes refers to Niccolò Machiavelli, in whose thought could be found proto-modern ideas. And still others would begin with Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679). For the most part, the when of modernity in this sense arises approximately from the fifteenth into the sixteenth centuries. Other theorists of modernity argue that the modern should not be looked at in terms of a set of ideas by an individual thinker but a set of circumstances that form systems in which people think. Recall from our introduction that in the fifteenth century Christendom looked eastward for the center of the world, which was considered to be India. Seeking a shorter route to the east by going westward around what was then thought to be a smaller planet, they encountered a world which challenged their previous point of center. With the Atlantic Ocean displacing the Mediterranean Sea as the leading place of maritime commerce, the center moved westward and northward in an expanding Christendom, and Europe came into being as the modern world. Christopher Columbus's landing in 1492 thus signaled more than a successful expedition. It signaled the birth of a new age.
Contents
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
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- 01 May 2008, pp vii-viii
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Frontmatter
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
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- 05 June 2012
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- 01 May 2008, pp i-vi
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Guide to further reading
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
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- 05 June 2012
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- 01 May 2008, pp 251-259
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An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
- Lewis R. Gordon
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- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 01 May 2008
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In this undergraduate textbook Lewis R. Gordon offers the first comprehensive treatment of Africana philosophy, beginning with the emergence of an Africana (i.e. African diasporic) consciousness in the Afro-Arabic world of the Middle Ages. He argues that much of modern thought emerged out of early conflicts between Islam and Christianity that culminated in the expulsion of the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula, and from the subsequent expansion of racism, enslavement, and colonialism which in their turn stimulated reflections on reason, liberation, and the meaning of being human. His book takes the student reader on a journey from Africa through Europe, North and South America, the Caribbean, and back to Africa, as he explores the challenges posed to our understanding of knowledge and freedom today, and the response to them which can be found within Africana philosophy.
3 - Three pillars of African-American philosophy
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- Book:
- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 01 May 2008, pp 69-90
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Summary
Our discussion of nineteenth-century Africana philosophy has been, in effect, a discussion of the foundations of African-American philosophy. African-American philosophy is an area of Africana philosophy that focuses on philosophical problems posed by the African diaspora in the New World. Although there is some controversy over the term “African American” to refer specifically to the convergence of black people in the New World continents and regions of the modern world, let us use that term since it is the one most used by philosophers in the field. Thus by African-American philosophy let us then mean the modern philosophical discourse that emerges from that diasporic African community, including its francophone, hispanophone, and lusophone forms. To articulate the central features and themes of the thought from that intellectual heritage, I would like to begin by outlining some of the thought of the three greatest influences on many (if not most) in the field – namely, Anna Julia Cooper, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Frantz Fanon.
Anna Julia Cooper and the problem of value
The life of Anna Julia Cooper (1858–1964) defies belief. She was born a slave, from her father and master George Washington Hayward and his slave, her mother, Hannah Stanley Hayward, in Raleigh, North Carolina and went to school shortly after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which outlawed slavery except for inmates. She was still a child during these events, but took so well to her studies at St.
Preface
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- Book:
- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
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- 01 May 2008, pp ix-xii
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Summary
This book came about through an odd series of circumstances. I was asked to write up a proposal for it while tending to the last rites for the man whose first and last name I share. Those were harrowing times. It was at the end of a year in which, through losing both my parents, I became an orphan. Proposing a text that invokes ancestors as witnesses was something I thought I would not have been able to bear. I found strength and inspiration articulating their contributions and representing this field for Cambridge University Press.
Africana philosophy has experienced growth among professional philosophers in the past two decades. Although this book explores a constellation of thought over the course of a millennium, pioneering work in the academy belongs to William R. Jones, Leonard Harris, and Lucius T. Outlaw for offering a way of writing about this field that has had enormous impact on its participants. The difference between them and their predecessors was that they brought the metaphilosophical question of African diasporic philosophy – its conditions of possibility – to the forefront of professional philosophical debates in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a privilege to enter the academy in the 1990s on the shoulders of their pioneering work. An even greater privilege is this opportunity to advance my position on the problematics they have outlined. My own work argues for the expansion of philosophical categories.
Part II - From New World to new worlds
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- Book:
- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 01 May 2008, pp 67-68
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Index
- Lewis R. Gordon, Temple University, Philadelphia
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- Book:
- An Introduction to Africana Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 01 May 2008, pp 260-275
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