Ontological Terror
€30.90
Product Information
| ISBN | 9780822370871 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Calvin L. Warren |
| Publisher | Duke University Press |
| Format | Paperback |
| Number of pages | 232 |
| Weight (kg) | 0.360 |
| Publishing Date | 18/05/2018 |
| Price (excl. tax) | €29.15 |
| Tax | €1.75 |
| Price (incl. tax) | €30.90 |
| Availability | 2 units in external warehouse |
Product Description
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.