Early Modern Philosophy and Slavery Workshop and Benedict Lecture (11/11/23)

NOVEMBER 11

1.    European Philosophers on Enslavement (9:30 -12)

Dwight Lewis (Minnesota) On Amo’s argument concerning the Rights of Moors in Europe

Julia Jorati (U. Mass) The Effects of Slavery on Enslaved People and Eighteenth-Century Antislavery Arguments

Huaping Lu-Adler (Georgetown) Kant on Slavery and Right

Chair: Julie Walsh (Wellesley)

2.    The Philosophy of Ottobah Cugoano (1-4)

Carrie Shanafeldt (Yeshiva) Ottobah Cugoano on British Slavery, National Debt, and Speculative Finance

Iziah Topete (Penn State) Cugoano on Redressing Slavery

Aminah Hasan-Birdwell (Emory) “That sottish and selfish principle”: Ottobah Cugoano on Self-Interest, Imagination, and Moral Wrongdoing

Johan Olsthoorn (Amsterdam) After Abolition: Cugoano on ‘Lawful Servitude’ and the Injustice of Slavery (by Zoom)

Chair: John Harfouch (Alabama)

3.    Benedict Lecture (4:30-6:30)

Sankar Muthu (Chicago) Enlightenment Diagnoses of Global Oppression: On The “Dystopia of Self-Hatred”

4.    Benedict Reception (6:30-7:30)

NOVEMBER 12

5.    Nineteenth Century Responses (9:30-12)

Zeyad El Nabolsy (York) Racism in Victorian Philosophical Anthropology

Dalitso Ruwe (Queen’s) 18th and 19th century Black practices of reading the bible against enslavement (by Zoom)

Brian Smith (Nazarbayev) Locke among the 19th century abolitionists

Chair: Antonia LoLordo (UVA)

THE WORKSHOP WILL BE HELD IN THE COMPUTING AND DATA SCIENCE BUILDING (CDS) 1750, 665 COMMONWEALTH AVENUE, BOSTON, MA.

THANKS TO THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES, BOSTON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, AND THE BENEDICT FUND FOR GENEROUS ASSISTANCE,

For further information contact Aaron Garrett: garrett@bu.edu.

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