Ontological terror: Blackness, nihilism, and emancipation

In Ontological Terror Calvin L. Warren intervenes in Afro-pessimism, Heideggerian metaphysics, and black humanist philosophy by positing that the "Negro question" is intimately imbricated with questions of Being. Warren uses the figure of the antebellum free black as a philosophical paradi...

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1. Verfasser: Warren, Calvin L. 1980- (VerfasserIn)
Format: Elektronisch E-Book
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: Durham ; London Duke University Press 2018
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Online-Zugang:Volltext
Zusammenfassung:In Ontological Terror Calvin L. Warren intervenes in Afro-pessimism, Heideggerian metaphysics, and black humanist philosophy by positing that the "Negro question" is intimately imbricated with questions of Being. Warren uses the figure of the antebellum free black as a philosophical paradigm for thinking through the tensions between blackness and Being. He illustrates how blacks embody a metaphysical nothing. This nothingness serves as a destabilizing presence and force as well as that which whiteness defines itself against. Thus, the function of blackness as giving form to nothing presents a terrifying problem for whites: they need blacks to affirm their existence, even as they despise the nothingness they represent. By pointing out how all humanism is based on investing blackness with nonbeing--a logic which reproduces antiblack violence and precludes any realization of equality, justice, and recognition for blacks--Warren urges the removal of the human from its metaphysical pedestal and the exploration of ways of existing that are not predicated on a grounding in being
Beschreibung:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Beschreibung:1 Online-Ressource (xi, 220 Seiten) Illustrationen
ISBN:9780822371847