1st Edition
The Philosophy of Charles W. Mills Race and the Relations of Power
Charles W. Mills (1951 – 2021) was considered by many to be the most well-known philosopher specializing in political philosophy and critical philosophy of race. This is the first collection of essays to critically examine the key themes of Mills’s philosophy across his major works.
The chapters in this volume engage with major themes such as the racial contract, non-ideal theory, metaphysics of race, epistemology of ignorance, and corrective justice. They also explore Mills’s engagement with philosophical figures including Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Maria Lugones, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, and John Rawls. Furthermore, the contributors seek to uncover unexplored terrain which may be illuminated by applying many of Mills’s key insights.
The Philosophy of Charles W. Mills will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in political philosophy, philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, and Black political thought.
Foreword George Yancy
Introduction Mark William Westmoreland
1. Diagnosing White Aphasia: Mills and Domination Contract Mark William Westmoreland
2. Curdled Contracts: Mills and Decolonial Feminism Taylor Rogers
3. Corresponding Contracts: The Intersectional Mills Corey Reed
4. Toward the Bourgeois Revolution: Situating Mills’s Liberal Turn Rafael Vizcaíno
5. Mills on Class in Relation to Race Lawrence Blum
6. Mills, Contracts, and the Limits of Liberalism Clevis Headley
7. A Page of History: Mills’s Black Radical Kantianism and American Legal (Racial) Realism Timothy J. Golden
8. Building (Conceptual) Bridges: Mills’s Non-ideal Theory and Disciplinary Whitopias Emmalon Davis
Biography
Mark William Westmoreland, PhD teaches philosophy at Ocean County College. He is the co-editor (with Andrea J. Pitts) of Beyond Bergson: Examining Race and Colonialism through the Writings of Henri Bergson (SUNY) and author of “Bergson, Colonialism, and Race” in Interpreting Bergson (Cambridge) and other essays on race and pedagogy.
"This volume offers an original collection of essays that showcase new, exciting, and much-needed philosophical work, carrying on the legacy of the remarkable late Africana philosopher Charles Mills. It invokes the promise of the future of political philosophy at the intersection of philosophy of race and Africana philosophy."
Elvira Basevich, University of California, Davis, USA
