Abolition and Slavery in 18c Philosophy

From the venue:

Recent studies of eighteenth-century philosophy have generated incisive questions about the limitations of the moral and political insight of British and European philosophers who were invested in (or silent about) transatlantic slavery. During this period, the rapidly expanding traffic and enslavement of African people appears as a topic of common knowledge and discussion in religion, law, economics, literature, and drama. Writings by enslaved and self-emancipated women and men attested to the violence and degradation of the conditions of slavery, as well as to the hypocrisy of much of Western moral and political discourse. This symposium focuses on slavery and abolition both as and in conversation with eighteenth-century philosophy. Despite it seemingly disciplinary focus the workshop will call form interdisciplinary perspectives on the period in order to create a dialogue on slavery and its intellectual legacy across various research methods, texts, and disciplinary orientations.