About the Book
In Philosophic Values and World Citizenship: Locke to Obama and Beyond, Alain Locke-the central promoter of the Harlem Renaissance, America's most famous African American pragmatist, the cultural referent for Renaissance movements in the Caribbean and Africa-is placed in conversation with leading philosophers and cultural figures in the modern world. The contributors to this collection compare and contrast Locke's views on values, tolerance, cosmopolitanism, and American and world citizenship with philosophers and leading cultural figures ranging from Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, James Farmer, William James, John Dewey, José Vasconcelos, Hans G. Gadamer, Fredrick Nietzsche, Horace Kallen, Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka) to the cultural and political figure of Barack Obama.
This important collection of essays eruditely presents Locke's views on moral, emotional, and aesthetic values; the principle of tolerance in managing value conflict; and his rhetorical style, which conveyed his views of cultural reciprocity and tolerance in the service of the values of citizenship and cosmopolitanism.
For teachers and students of contemporary debates in pragmatism, diversity, and value theory, these conversations define new and controversial terrain.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction
Part 2 Part One. Value
Chapter 3 Moral Imperatives for World Order
Chapter 4 Unity through Diversity: A Bahá'í Principle
Chapter 5 Chapter One. Culture and the Kalos: Inquiry, Justice, and Value in Locke and Aristotle
Chapter 6 Chapter Two. Aesthetic Evaluations of Realist Drama
Chapter 7 Chapter Three. The Axiological Turn in Early Twentieth Century American Philosophy: Alain Locke and José Vasoconcelos on Epistemology, Value, and the Emotions
Chapter 8 Chapter Four. Conundrum of Cosmopolitanism and Race: The Great Debate between Alain Locke and William James
Part 9 Part Two. Tolerance
Chapter 10 A Functional View of Value Ultimates
Chapter 11 Chapter Five. A Functional Peace in This World: Farmer and Locke on the Challenges of Truly Post-War Hope
Chapter 12 Chapter Six. Beyond Repressive Tolerance: Alain Locke's Hermeneutics of Democracy and Tolerance in Conversation with Herbert Marcuse and H.G. Gadamer
Chapter 13 Chapter Seven. Multicultural Education, Metaphysics, and Alain Locke's Post Metaphysical Alternative
Chapter 14 Chapter Eight. Unlikely Allies: Nietzsche, Locke, and Counter-Hegemonic Transformation of Consciousness
Part 15 Part Three. Cosmopolitanism
Chapter 16 World Citizenship: Mirage or Reality?
Chapter 17 Chapter Nine. Cosmopolitanism and Epideictic Rhetoric
Chapter 18 Chapter Ten. What Difference Does the Difference Make?: Horace Kallen, Alain Locke and the Birth of Cultural Pluralism
Chapter 19 Chapter Eleven. Ethnocentric Representations and Being Human in a Multiethnic Global World: Alain Locke Critique
Chapter 20 Chapter Twelve. Global Citizenship through Reciprocity: Alain Locke and Barack Obama's Pragmatist Politics
Chapter 21 Chapter Thirteen. New Moral Imperatives for World Order: Alain Locke on Pluralism and Relativism
About the Author :
Jacoby Adeshai Carter is assistant professor of philosophy at John Jay College.
Leonard Harris is professor of philosophy at Purdue University. He is co-author of Alain L. Locke: Biography of a Philosopher, co-editor of American Philosophies and Exploitation and Exclusion: Race and Class in Contemporary US Society, and editor of Racism, The Critical Pragmatism of Alain Locke, Children in Chaos: A "Philosophy for Children" Experience, The Philosophy of Alain Locke, Harlem Renaissance and Beyond, and Philosophy Born of Struggle: Afro-American Philosophy from 1917.
Review :
Philosophic Values and World Citizenship is a Sankofan knockout to the all too common conversations in American philosophy that continue to overlook the significance of Alain Locke in pragmatism, preferring instead the stolid rhetoric of canonical figures-like John Dewey or Josiah Royce-who held incomplete (racially excluding) democratic visions. Carter and Harris have compiled an array of primary texts and secondary reflections that demonstrate the innovative foresight and conceptual resources held in Alain Locke's philosophy, with the power awaken us from our Obama-era lullabies and convey to us the seriousness and assiduity needed to achieve an actual cosmopolitan vision.
The very title of the work, Philosophic Values and World Citizenship: Locke to Obama and Beyond indicates both the newness and significance of the subject matter of this interesting book. The United States, with its long (and at times savage) history of anti-black racism elected its first African American president, Barack Obama, almost two years ago. Alain Locke, the first African American Rhodes scholar and Harvard PhD in philosophy, played a central role in what came to be called the Harlem Renaissance, that most pivotal movement and moment in the development of African American self consciousness?that moment when black people first interrogated themselves publically, politically, and artistically and constructed images of themselves individuallyand collectively. The subject matter then of this book is nothing less than a comprehensive exploration of the many ways in which Locke's portrayal of the dignity and complexity of African American culture contributed not only to the development of African American self consciousness but also to the transformation of American culture resulting, indirectly to be sure, in the election our nation's first African American president. The essays that comprise this volume are all well written and will without d
A wonderful combination of four major essays by Locke and nine excellent and mostly original essays by both established and younger scholars, which demonstrate Locke's contemporary relevance and historical and thematic ties between his work and various philosophical traditions, including pragmatism, critical theory, and Latin American philosophy. This volume adds significantly to the growing body of literature establishing Locke's well-deserved place in the canon of American philosophy.
The very title of the work, Philosophic Values and World Citizenship: Locke to Obama and Beyond indicates both the newness and significance of the subject matter of this interesting book. The United States, with its long (and at times savage) history of anti-black racism elected its first African American president, Barack Obama, almost two years ago. Alain Locke, the first African American Rhodes scholar and Harvard PhD in philosophy, played a central role in what came to be called the Harlem Renaissance, that most pivotal movement and moment in the development of African American self consciousness-that moment when black people first interrogated themselves publically, politically, and artistically and constructed images of themselves individually and collectively. The subject matter then of this book is nothing less than a comprehensive exploration of the many ways in which Locke's portrayal of the dignity and complexity of African American culture contributed not only to the development of African American self consciousness but also to the transformation of American culture resulting, indirectly to be sure, in the election our nation's first African American president. The essays that comprise this volume are all well written and will without doubt make important contributions to the field of Locke scholarship and to the understanding of African thought and culture in general.
