Alain Locke on the Theoretical Foundations for a Just and Successful Peace

Alain Locke is most known for his involvement in the Harlem Renaissance. However, he received his PhD in philosophy from Harvard University in 1918, and produced a very large corpus of philosophical work. His work shows him to have been a sophisticated philosopher who thought through practical and theoretical problems regarding the nature of cosmopolitanism, democracy, race, value, religion, art, and education. Although Locke's philosophical work has been discussed in parts, there has been no theorizing about how his different philosophical commitments fit together. In this book Corey L. Barnes begins to systematize Locke's philosophical thought, showing how his democratic theory, philosophy of race, and value theory are connected to and undergirded by a commitment to cosmopolitanism. In so doing, Barnes unearths aspects of Locke's thoughtfor example, his economic thinkingthat have not been accorded attention and reimagines parts of his work about which have been theorized, allwhile bringing Locke into current debates about each subject.

Clarifies the systematic character of Locke's philosophy. Attends to under-studied dimensions of Locke's work, such as his economic thinking. Puts Locke in conversation with contemporary debates in cosmopolitanism & democratic theory.

Auteur
Corey L. Barnes is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern University, USA.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. One Cosmopolitan World, or None.- 3. A Theory of True Democracy.- 4. Impediments to True Democracy and a Cosmopolitan World.- 5. A Theory of Race for Democracy and Cosmopolitanism.- 6. A Theory of Value for Democracy and Cosmopolitanism.- 7. Conclusion.