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Basic Equality
by Paul SagarAn innovative argument that vindicates our normative commitment to basic equality, synthesising philosophy, history, and psychologyWhat makes human beings one another&’s equals? That we are "basic equals" has become a bedrock assumption in Western moral and political philosophy. And yet establishing why we ought to believe this claim has proved fiendishly difficult, floundering in the face of the many inequalities that characterise the human condition. In this provocative work, Paul Sagar offers a novel approach to explaining and justifying basic equality. Rather than attempting to find an independent foundation for basic equality, he argues, we should instead come to see our commitment to this idea as the result of the practice of treating others as equals. Moreover, he continues, it is not enough to grapple with the problem through philosophy alone—by just thinking very hard, in our armchairs; we must draw insights from history and psychology as well.Sagar writes that, as things stand, there appear to be no good arguments for believing in the truth of basic equality. Indeed, for much of Western intellectual history and social practice, basic inequality has been the default position. How is it then, Sagar asks, that in Western societies, in a period of less than a century, basic equality emerged as the dominant view? Sagar approaches this not as a mere philosophical puzzle, but as a dramatic historical development. In so doing, he shows us what is at stake when human beings treat one another as equals just because they are human beings.
Basil Bernstein: Code Theory and Beyond (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Brian BarrettThis book provides an accessible way into the ideas of Basil Bernstein. It introduces, explains and exemplifies key conceptual landmarks in the development of his theory, from his sociolinguistics in the 1960s through analyses of classrooms and the construction of curriculum in the 1970s and 1980s, to studies of intellectual fields of research through the 1990s. The book introduces how these ideas can and have been used in empirical research over the past fifty years, and how they are being built on by scholars in the twenty-first century to create a cumulative approach to understanding education, knowledge and society that is alive and growing today.
The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity
by Claudia de RhamA world-renowned physicist seeks gravity&’s true nature and finds wisdom in embracing its force in her lifeClaudia de Rham has been playing with gravity her entire life. As a diver, experimenting with her body&’s buoyancy in the Indian Ocean. As a pilot, soaring over Canadian waterfalls on dark mornings before beginning her daily scientific research. As an astronaut candidate, dreaming of the experience of flying free from Earth&’s pull. And as a physicist, discovering new sides to gravity&’s irresistible personality by exploring the limits of Einstein&’s general theory of relativity. In The Beauty of Falling, de Rham shares captivating stories about her quest to gain intimacy with gravity, to understand both its feeling and fundamental nature. Her life&’s pursuit led her from a twist of fate that snatched away her dream of becoming an astronaut to an exhilarating breakthrough at the very frontiers of gravitational physics.While many of us presume to know gravity quite well, the brightest scientists in history have yet to fully answer the simple question: what exactly is gravity? De Rham reveals how great minds—from Newton and Einstein to Stephen Hawking, Andrea Ghez, and Roger Penrose—led her to the edge of knowledge about this fundamental force. She found hints of a hidden side to gravity at the particle level where Einstein&’s theory breaks down, leading her to develop a new theory of &“massive gravity.&” De Rham shares how her life&’s path turned from a precipitous fall to an exquisite flight toward the discovery of something entirely new about our surprising, gravity-driven universe.
Beauvoir and Politics: A Toolkit
by Liesbeth Schoonheim Karen VintgesApproaching Simone de Beauvoir’s feminism and social commentary as a resource to understand our current crises, Beauvoir and Politics: A Toolkit brings together established and emerging scholars to apply her insights to gender studies, political philosophy, decolonisation, intellectual history, age theory, and critical phenomenology. The essays in this collection start from key concepts in Beauvoir’s oeuvre and relate them to contemporary debates, asking how her notion of ambiguity speaks to lived experiences that have been highly politicized in recent years, such as pregnancy, old age, sexual violence, and the exposure of black and brown bodies to police violence; how myths inform our notions of collective, national identities, as well as notions of masculinity and femininity; and how she provides conceptual tools that help to theorize the various political strategies that are used to challenge gendered and racialized systems of oppression. These and other issues are central to this critical appraisal of Beauvoir’s legacy, demonstrating the contemporary relevance of her thought as it diagnoses the present and looks toward change for a better future. This book will be of great interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students looking to engage with the political content of Simone de Beauvoir’s work and the timely application of her ideas.
Beckett Ongoing: Aesthetics, Ethics, Politics (New Interpretations of Beckett in the Twenty-First Century)
by Michael Krimper Gabriel Quigley“You must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” These are some of the most quoted lines written by Samuel Beckett, which speak to the impulse of persevering in times of crisis and impossibility. Yet few readers of Beckett agree about what this paradoxical formula could mean, let alone what mode of engagement it would seem to indicate, be it committed, autonomous, or something else entirely. This volume of essays explores what that mode of engagement could be, all the while elucidating the ethical and political stakes of the “ongoing” in both Beckett’s life and work. Across multiple disciplines in the humanities, the authors delve into questions of political subjectivity and representation, the ethics of powerlessness and refusal, the aesthetics of syncopation and destitution, multimedia experiments between genre, as well as Beckett’s wider impact on transnational itineraries of modernism and philosophy up to the contemporary.
Becoming an Everyday Changemaker: Healing and Justice At School (Equity and Social Justice in Education Series)
by Alex Shevrin VenetEducators with a vision for more equitable, caring schools often struggle with where to begin. I’m just one teacher, where can I start to make change? Is it even possible? How do I do this within current constraints? In this new book, bestselling author Alex Shevrin Venet empowers everyday changemakers by showing how equity-centered trauma-informed practices can guide our approach to school change. Unlike other books on social justice, this powerful resource doesn’t tell you which changes to implement; instead, it focuses on helping you develop the skills, strategies, and tools for making change meaningful and effective.Topics include change opportunities and why trauma makes change harder; skills for navigating the change journey such as building relationships, working from strengths, and navigating many streams of information; and sustainable structures for lasting change. Throughout, there are reflection questions to use as conversation-starters with fellow changemakers, as well as Rest Stops so you can pause and process what you are thinking about and learning. This book will help you start your change journey now, putting you and your students on the path to equity, justice, and healing.
Begetting: What Does It Mean to Create a Child?
by Mara van der LugtAn investigation of what it means to have children—morally, philosophically and emotionally&“Do you want to have children?&” is a question we routinely ask each other. But what does it mean to create a child? Is this decision always justified? Does anyone really have the moral right to create another person? In Begetting, Mara van der Lugt attempts to fill in the moral background of procreation. Drawing on both philosophy and popular culture, van der Lugt does not provide a definitive answer on the morality of having a child; instead, she helps us find the right questions to ask.Most of the time, when we talk about whether to have children, what we are really talking about is whether we want to have children. Van der Lugt shows why this is not enough. To consider having children, she argues, is to interrogate our own responsibility and commitments, morally and philosophically and also personally. What does it mean to bring a new creature into the world, to decide to perform an act of creation? What does it mean to make the decision that life is worth living on behalf of a person who cannot be consulted? These questions are part of a conversation we should have started long ago. Van der Lugt does not ignore the problematic aspects of procreation—ethical, environmental and otherwise. But she also acknowledges the depth and complexity of the intensely human desire to have a child of our own blood and our own making.
Being a Lived Body: From a Neo-phenomenological Point of View (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)
by Tonino GrifferoThis book begins with the distinction between the so-called lived body or felt body (Leib) and the physical body (Körper), tracing the conceptual history of this distinction through key figures in philosophical and social thoughts and articulating a theory of the lived body that draws on the New Phenomenology developed by Hermann Schmitz. An explanation of our being-in-the-world in terms of a felt-bodily communication with all perceived forms and their affective-bodily resonance in us, Being a Lived Body integrates and critically assesses the leading theories of embodiment while presenting a new approach to the body. It will, therefore, appeal to scholars of philosophy, social theory, and anthropology with interests in phenomenology and embodiment.
Being Philosophical: An Introduction to Philosophy and Its Methods
by Stephen HetheringtonBeing Philosophical guides readers through the perplexing initial moments of meeting philosophy by taking them inside philosophical thinking as an activity. In a beginner-friendly voice, Stephen Hetherington elucidates how intellectual ‘tools’ from a diversity of traditions, East and West, can enable us to start doing philosophy – that is, to think ‘from scratch’ in a philosophical way. He explores many classical topics and issues that have preoccupied philosophers from Plato, early Buddhists and Confucius to Karl Marx and beyond – selves, souls, identity, will, knowing and reasoning, acting morally, and more – and presents possible methods for responding to different theories. Inviting and conversational, Being Philosophical is the book needed by every new philosophy student – or anyone wondering whether they might want to explore the world of philosophy.
'The Bell Curve' in Perspective: Race, Meritocracy, Inequality and Politics (Palgrave Studies in the Theory and History of Psychology)
by William H. TuckerThis open access book examines the implications of The Bell Curve for the social, economic, and political developments of the early 21st century. Following a review of the reception of The Bell Curve and its place in the campaign to end affirmative action, Professor Tucker analyses Herrnstein’s concept of the “meritocracy” in relation to earlier 20th century eugenics and the dramatic increase in economic inequality over the past 30 years. Tucker demonstrates how, contrary to The Bell Curve’s predictions, the reallocation of these huge sums was neither rational nor beneficial for society. The book moves on to situate The Bell Curve within contemporary politics and shows how it can be seen to have played a role in the 2016 US election. This compelling analysis will appeal to scholars and those with an interest in the history of scientific racism, the history of psychology and the sociology of knowledge and science.This is an open access book.
The Berlin Antisemitism Controversy
by Frederick C. BeiserAfter a long struggle, Jewish emancipation was formally completed in Germany in 1871, when Wilhelm I abolished religious discrimination across the entire Reich. Yet the very same decade witnessed a new wave of antisemitism, one more vicious and virulent than anything before. At its centre was what is known as ‘The Berlin Antisemitism Controversy’. How can this rise of antisemitism be explained when further liberal reform was expected? Can it help us understand the tide of antisemitism that was to engulf Germany fifty years later?In this outstanding book by a leading scholar of German philosophy, Frederick C. Beiser argues that to understand modern antisemitism we must go back in history. Beginning with the background of the controversy and examining the most important antisemitic thinkers of the 1870s and 1880s, he brilliantly analyses the beginnings of modern antisemitism in Germany. Beiser challenges received scholarship that the rise of antisemitism was caused by a failure of the Jews to assimilate and criticises the view, held by Hannah Arendt, that antisemitism was at its peak when Jews were perceived to be powerless and had lost their roles in government and finance. He argues instead that it was fuelled by a fear of Jewish domination that took multiple forms. Exploring antisemitism from both a historical and philosophical perspective, he situates antisemitism in relation to such fundamental questions as the conditions for citizenship in the modern state, what is meant by nationality and what role religion should play in the state. He also vividly and expertly analyses the writings and arguments of those involved in the antisemitism crisis of the 1870s, including Wilhelm Marr, Constantin Frantz and Adolf Treitschke and thinkers who are here examined in English for the first time.The Berlin Antisemitism Controversy sheds much-needed light on an episode whose shockwaves resonate today. It is a superb account of a crucial period of not only German but also European and Jewish history and essential reading for anyone interested in the causes and roots of antisemitism in Germany and beyond.
Bernard Shaw, Paul Ricoeur, and the Jesusian Dialectics of Redemptive Living (Bernard Shaw and His Contemporaries)
by Howard Ira EinsohnThis book explores a heretofore unremarked linkage between Bernard Shaw, the twentieth-century French thinker Paul Ricoeur, and Jesus of Nazareth. The ties that bind them are a foundational interest in the social teachings of the Nazarene and their use of a shared dialectics with respect to living the kind of compassionate life that holds out the promise in our contemporary world of achieving something approximating universal wellness on a healthy planet at peace with itself. This work argues that the three principal subjects of the study—independently of one another—used the same dialectical method to reach the same dialectically derived conclusion about how humans can live redemptively in a fractured world.
Bertrand Russell, Feminism, and Women Philosophers in his Circle (History of Analytic Philosophy)
by Landon D. C. Elkind Alexander Mugar KleinThis book examines Bertrand Russell’s complicated relationships to the women around him, and to feminism more generally. The essays in this volume offer scholarly reassessments of these relationships and their import for the history of feminism and of analytic philosophy.Russell is a founder of analytic philosophy. He has also been called a feminist due to his public, decades-long advocacy for women’s rights and equality of the sexes. But his private behavior towards wives and sexual partners, and his apparently dismissive (occasionally public) responses to some women philosophers, raises the question of what sort of feminist (or chauvinist) Russell actually was.Focusing on women in Russell’s circle of acquaintance, including feminist activists and his philosophical interlocutors, this book casts new light on a timeless thinker’s feminism and the women who played critical roles in the making of analytic philosophy.
Bertrand’s Paradox and the Principle of Indifference (Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics)
by Nicholas ShackelEvents between which we have no epistemic reason to discriminate have equal epistemic probabilities. Bertrand’s chord paradox, however, appears to show this to be false, and thereby poses a general threat to probabilities for continuum sized state spaces. Articulating the nature of such spaces involves some deep mathematics and that is perhaps why the recent literature on Bertrand’s Paradox has been almost entirely from mathematicians and physicists, who have often deployed elegant mathematics of considerable sophistication. At the same time, the philosophy of probability has been left out. In particular, left out entirely are the philosophical ground of the principle of indifference, the nature of the principle itself, the stringent constraint this places on the mathematical representation of the principle needed for its application to continuum sized event spaces, and what these entail for rigour in developing the paradox itself. This book puts the philosophy and its entailments back in and in so doing casts a new light on the paradox, giving original analyses of the paradox, its possible solutions, the source of the paradox, the philosophical errors we make in attempting to solve it and what the paradox proves for the philosophy of probability. The book finishes with the author’s proposed solution—a solution in the spirit of Bertrand’s, indeed—in which an epistemic principle more general than the principle of indifference offers a principled restriction of the domain of the principle of indifference.Bertrand's Paradox and the Principle of Indifference will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in the philosophy of mathematics, epistemology, philosophy of science, probability theory and mathematical physics.
Between Life and Thought: Existential Anthropology and the Study of Religion
by Don Seeman Devaka PremawardhanaExistential anthropology is an approach inspired by existential and phenomenological thought to further our understanding of the human condition. Its ethnographic methodology emphasizes embodied experience and focuses on what is at stake for people amid the contingencies, struggles, and uncertainties of everyday life. While anthropological research on religion abounds, there has been little systematic attention to the ways anthropology and religious studies might benefit from better consideration of one another or from the adoption of a shared existential perspective. Between Life and Thought gathers leading anthropologists and religion scholars, including some of existential anthropology’s most recognized advocates and thoughtful critics. The collection opens with a comprehensive introduction to phenomenology and existentialism in anthropology and religious studies and concludes with an analysis of how existential anthropology might address the long-standing problem of constructivism and perennialism in religious studies. The chapters altogether present existential anthropology as an especially generative paradigm with which to rethink and remake both anthropology and the academic study of religion. A timely and significant intervention across multiple areas of research, Between Life and Thought is an invaluable source for critically exploring the prospects, as well as the limits, of an anthropological approach to religion grounded in experiential ethnography and existential thought.
Between Wittgenstein and Weil: Comparisons in Philosophy, Religion, and Ethics (Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Philosophy)
by Jack ManziThis volume explores the relationship between the philosophical thought of Simone Weil and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The contributions shed light on how reading Weil can inform our understanding of Wittgenstein, and vice versa. The chapters cover different aspects of Weil’s and Wittgenstein’s philosophy, including their religious thought and their views on ethics and metaphilosophy. They address the following questions: How does Wittgenstein’s struggle with religious belief match up with Simone Weil’s own struggle with organised belief? What is the role of the mystical and supernatural in their works? How much impact has various posthumous editorial decisions had on the shaping of Weil’s and Wittgenstein’s thought? Is there any significance to similarities in Weil’s and Wittgenstein’s written and philosophical styles? How do Weil and Wittgenstein conceive of the ‘self’ and its role in philosophical thinking? What role does belief play in Weil’s and Wittgenstein’s respective philosophical works? Between Wittgenstein and Weil will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in twentieth-century philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of language, and the history of moral philosophy.
Beyond Classical Liberalism: Freedom and the Good
by James Dominic Rooney Patrick ZollThis volume brings together diverse sets of standpoints on liberalism in an era of growing skepticism and distrust regarding liberal institutions. The essays in the volume: • Relate concerns for liberal institutions with classical themes in perfectionist politics, such as the priority of the common good in decision-making or the role of comprehensive doctrines. • Analyse how perfectionist intuitions about the political life affect our concepts of public reason or public justification. • Outline various moral duties we have toward other persons that underlie the liberal institutions or notions of rights functioning across the contemporary political landscape. • Explore various aspects of pluralism from within influential religious or philosophical traditions, applying insights from those traditions to issues in contemporary politics. The comprehensive volume will be of great interest to scholars, students, and researchers of politics, especially those in political philosophy and political theory.
Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems
by Francine BannerAn ambitious study of our obsession with complicity that shows how we can all become "good accomplices." Beyond Complicity is a fascinating cultural diagnosis that identifies our obsession with complicity as a symptom of a deeply divided society. The questions surrounding what it means to be legally complicit are the same ones we may ask ourselves as we evaluate our own and others' responsibility for inherited and ongoing harms, such as racism, sexism, and climate change: What does it mean that someone "knew" they were contributing to wrongdoing? How much involvement must a person have in order to be complicit? At what point are we obligated to intervene? Francine Banner ties together pop culture, politics, law, and social movements to provide a framework for thinking about what we know intuitively: that our society is defined by crisis, risk, and the quest to root out hazards at all costs. Engaging with legal cases, historical examples, and contemporary case studies, Beyond Complicity unfolds the complex role that complicity plays in US law and society today, offering suggestions for how to shift focus away from blame and toward positive, lasting systemic change.
Beyond the Sovereign Self: Aesthetic Autonomy from the Avant-Garde to Socially Engaged Art
by Grant KesterIn Beyond the Sovereign Self Grant H. Kester continues the critique of aesthetic autonomy begun in The Sovereign Self, showing how socially engaged art provides an alternative aesthetic with greater possibilities for critical practice. Instead of grounding art in its distance from the social, Kester shows how socially engaged art, developed in conjunction with forms of social or political resistance, encourages the creative capacity required for collective political transformation. Among others, Kester analyzes the work of conceptual artist Adrian Piper, experimental practices associated with the escrache tradition in Argentina, and indigenous Canadian artists such as Nadia Myre and Michèle Taïna Audette, showing how socially engaged art catalyzes forms of resistance that operate beyond the institutional art world. From the Americas and Europe to Iran and South Africa, Kester presents a historical genealogy of recent engaged art practices rooted in a deep history of cultural production, beginning with nineteenth-century political struggles and continuing into contemporary anticolonial resistance and other social movements.
Biharis in Bangladesh: Transition from Statelessness to Citizenship
by Zaglul HaiderThis book deals with the citizenship status of the Biharis in Bangladesh and their ability to access rights associated with citizenship. The main argument of the book is that although legally the Biharis are citizens of Bangladesh, they still do not have access to many important rights of citizenship that can make their citizenship meaningful. Their inability to access many important citizenship rights made them de facto stateless, although they are de-jure citizens. Taking a law and society approach this book examines both legal and non-legal factors behind the deplorable conditions of the Biharis in Bangladesh. Based on fieldwork, this book analyses that the Biharis’ inability to access citizenship rights is inconsistent with citizenship theory, citizenship laws, and the Constitution of Bangladesh. To make the Biharis citizenship effective or meaningful the author suggests some recommendations for policy changes that would enable Biharis to access rights associated with citizenship.
Bildungsforschung: Erziehungswissenschaftliche Perspektiven (Kindheit – Bildung – Erziehung. Philosophische Perspektiven)
by Johannes Drerup Werner Thole Nina Göddertz Ruprecht Mattig Uwe UhlendorffDer Begriff ‚Bildungsforschung‘ erweist sich als nicht minder umstritten als der Begriff der Bildung selbst. Bildungsforschung fungiert in der Diskussion häufig als eine Art Regenschirmbegriff, mit dem ein Forschungsprofil markiert wird, das es ermöglichen soll, schulische, insbesondere unterrichtsbezogene Bildungsprozesse empirisch zu erfassen und von Schüler*innen zu erwerbende Kompetenzen festzulegen und mit Hilfe quantitativer Verfahren zu evaluieren. Im Rahmen von anderen Forschungstraditionen geht man auf kritische Distanz zu diesem inhaltlich und methodisch allzu sehr eingeschränkten Verständnis von Bildungsforschung. Im Zentrum des Bandes stehen erziehungswissenschaftliche Zugänge und Beiträge zur Bildungsforschung und damit verbundene disziplinäre Perspektiven und forschungsmethodologische Fragestellungen.
Bioethics: 50 Puzzles, Problems, and Thought Experiments (Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments in Philosophy)
by Sean D. Aas Collin O'Neil Chiara LeporaBioethics: 50 Puzzles, Problems, and Thought Experiments collects 50 cases—both real and imaginary—that have been, or should be, of special interest and importance to philosophical bioethics. Cases are collected together under topical headings in a natural order for an introductory course in bioethics. Each case is described in a few pages, which includes bioethical context, a concise narrative of the case itself, and a discussion of its importance, both for broader philosophical issues and for practical problems in clinical ethics and health policy. Each entry also contains a brief, annotated, list of suggested readings. In addition to the classic cases in bioethics, the book contains discussion of cases that involve several emerging bioethical issues: especially, issues around disability, social justice, and the practice of medicine in a diverse and globalized world.Key Features: Gives readers all chapters presented in an identical format: The Case Responses Suggested Readings Includes reference to up-to-date literature in journals devoted both to more generalist ethics and to bioethics Offers short and self-contained chapters, allowing students to quickly understand an issue and giving instructors flexibility in assigning readings to match the themes of the course Features actual or lightly fictionalized cases in humanitarian aid, offering a type of case that is often underrepresented in bioethics books Authored by three scholars who are actively involved in the central research areas of bioethics
Biopolitics and Healing in a Mass Milieu
by K. V. CybilSeveral of the key concepts of biopolitics have come under scrutiny since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. This volume brings into discussion how biopolitics can be conceptualized critically within a milieu of mass healing, such as in India. Pouring through the decolonial lens of healing, contributors to this volume discuss crucial themes like geropolitics and pandemic reflections on the question of old age; borders and logistics in a world emerging from the pandemic; immunization of humans and humanization of immunity, thus defining the Indian contexts of the biopolitical problematic. Extending its analysis into a retrospective vision of thought traditions and socio-political underpinnings that shaped modernity and post-coloniality in India, it also explores the medico-therapeutical discourse embedded in philosophy of medicine and philosophical modernity tracing its interstitial positioning as therapeutic-assemblages in a milieu of mass healing. This book will be useful for scholars and researchers of biopolitics, philosophy, political philosophy, sociology, science and technology studies, medical sociology, health and well-being, and cultural studies.
The Black Practice of Disbelief: An Introduction to the Principles, History, and Communities of Black Nonbelievers
by Anthony PinnA short introduction to Black Humanism: its history, its present, and the rich cultural sensibilities that infuse itIn the United States, to be a Black American is to be a Black Christian. And there&’s something to this assumption in that the vast majority of African Americans are Christian. However, in recent years a growing number of African Americans have said they claim no particular religious affiliation—they are Black "nones." And of these Black "nones," the most public and vocal are those who claim to be humanists.What does it mean to be a Black humanist? What do Black humanist believe, and what do they do? This slim volume answers these questions. Animated by six central principles, and discussed in terms of its history, practices, formations, and community rituals, this book argues that Black humanism can be understood as a religious movement. Pinn makes a distinction between theism and religion—which is simply a tool for examining, naming, and finding the meaning in human experience. Black humanism, based on this definition isn&’t theistic but it is a religious system used to explore human experience and foster life meaning. It infuses humanism with rich cultural sensibilities drawn from Black experience. As shown in these pages, thinking about Black humanism this way frees readers from making unfounded assumptions and enables them to better appreciate the secular &“beliefs,&” ritual structures, and community formation constituted by Black humanists.
Black Reason, White Feeling: The Jeffersonian Enlightenment in the African American Tradition (Jeffersonian America)
by Hannah SpahnThe vital influence of Black American intellectuals on the legacy of Thomas Jefferson&’s ideas The lofty Enlightenment principles articulated by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, so central to conceptions of the American founding, did not emerge fully formed as a coherent set of ideas in the eighteenth century. As Hannah Spahn argues in this important book, no group had a more profound influence on their development and reception than Black intellectuals. The rationalism and universalism most associated with Jefferson today, she shows, actually sprang from critical engagements with his thought by writers such as David Walker, Lemuel Haynes, Frederick Douglass, and W. E. B. Du Bois.Black Reason, White Feeling illuminates the philosophical innovations that these and other Black intellectuals made to build on Jefferson&’s thought, shaping both Jefferson&’s historical image and the exalted legacy of his ideas in American culture. It is not just the first book-length history of Jefferson&’s philosophy in Black thought; it is also the first history of the American Enlightenment that centers the originality and decisive impact of the Black tradition.