Caliban's Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy (Africana Thought) PDF
Preview Caliban's Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy (Africana Thought)
Caliban’s Reason Books in the Africana Thought series: Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought by Lewis R. Gordon Series Editors: Lewis R. Gordon and Paget Henry Caliban’s Reason I N T R O D U C I N G A F R O - C A R I B B E A N P H I L O S O P H Y Paget Henry ROUTLEDGE • New York • London Published in 2000 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Copyright © 2000 by Routledge All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Henry Paget. Caliban’s reason : introducing Afro-Carribean philosophy / Paget Henry. p. cm—(Africana thought) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-415-92645 (hb) — ISBN 0-415-92646-7 (pbk.) 1. Philosophy, Black—West Indies. I. Title. II. Series. B1028. P34 2000 199'.729'08996—dc21 99-047426 Book design by Cynthia Dunne ISBN 0-203-90010-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-90014-6 (Glassbook Format) Contents Acknowledgments IX Preface XI Introduction 1 PART I: SAMPLING THE FOUNDING TEXTS 1 The African Philosophical Heritage 21 2 C. L. R. James, African, and Afro-Caribbean Philosophy 47 3 Frantz Fanon, African, and Afro-Caribbean Philosophy 68 4 Wilson Harris and Caribbean Poeticism 90 PART II: UNITY, RATIONALITY, AND AFRICANA THOUGHT 5 Sylvia Wynter: Poststructuralism and Postcolonial Thought 117 6 Afro-American Philosophy: A Caribbean Perspective 144 7 Habermas, Phenomenology, and Rationality: An Africana Contribution 167 PART III: RECONSTRUCTING CARIBBEAN HISTORICISM 8 Pan-Africanism and Philosophy: Race, Class, and Development 197 9 Caribbean Marxism: After the Neoliberal and Linguistic Turns 221 10 Caribbean Historicism: Toward Reconstruction 247 Conclusion 273 Notes 283 Index 295 For the Anchors C. L. R. James Frantz Fanon Wilson Harris Sylvia Wynter and for Tim Hector, who has never stopped asking: “where is our philosophy?” Acknowledgments Writing is indeed a time-consuming activity. Consequently, even small books make large demands on the time and energies of the author and many other people. This has been particularly true of this work, which crosses disciplinary boundaries. Consequently, I am particularly indebted to many people who have given their time and effort to this work. First on this list is Lewis Gordon. I must thank him for insisting that I take the plunge into philosophy, for including some of my early philosophical essays in works he edited, and for reading a draft of the text. Without these acts of generosity, it is hard to imag- ine this work in its present form. I would also like to thank other friends and colleagues whose suggestions and criticisms have helped to make this book what it is. Wilson Harris, Sylvia Wynter, Anthony Bogues, Tsenay Serequeberhan, Madhu Dubey, Lucius Outlaw, Charles Mills, Dick Howard, Selwyn Cudjoe, Paul Buhle, Ato Sekyi- Ou, Paula Davis, John Ladd, Patrick Gooding, Rowan Phillips, Roberto Marquez, Neil Roberts, Cleavis Headley, Mali Olatunji, Sophie McCall, Kofi Benefo, Alex Dupuy, Hilbourne Watson, and Robyn Campbell for her special insights into African-American spirituality. Thanks are also due to successive member of my graduate seminar on cul- ture and social structure with whom I discussed many of the ideas in this book. I also had the opportunity to expose some of these ideas at the Postdoctoral Seminar of the Pembroke Center for the Study of Women here at Brown University. So thanks must go also to the coordinators, Elizabeth Weed and Ellen Rooney, and to successive members of this seminar. To Ms. Sheila Grant, I owe a great deal of thanks for her diligent work on the manuscript. Without her efforts it certainly would not be in this highly read- able form. Finally, two chapters of this book are revised versions of previously pub- lished works. An earlier version of chapter 2 appeared in The CLR James Journal4, no. 1 (1993), and an earlier version of chapter 3 in Fanon: A Critical Reader, edited by Lewis Gordon, T. Deanean Sharpley-Whiting, and Renee White. I thank the CLR James Society and Blackwell Publishers for permission to reprint these two pieces. ix
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