Conceived in chains: slavery and American philosophy Fighting for the Higher Law: Black and White Transcendentalists Against Slavery, Peter Wirzbicki. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021, 336 pp., $39.95(hb), ISBN: 9780812252910 [Book Review]

Intellectual History Review 34 (2):471-483 (2024)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Using Peter Wirzbicki's Fighting for the Higher Law as its analytic starting, this review essay considers the place of antislavery in the developments of American philosophy. Wirzbicki considers the role of African American Transcendentalists and their appeal to a “higher law,” a concept articulated significantly by a diverse group of thinkers associated with Transcendentalism. By 1850, such thinkers appropriated aspects of British and continental idealism, especially the relationship between “understanding” and “Reason,” to aggressively attack human chattel bondage. In doing so, they not only reflected the tenets of America's broader intellectual ethos (i.e., notions of democracy) but also cultivated the ground for philosophy in the postbellum period.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1080/17496977.2023.2205075

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 92,227

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Theodore Evergates, Henry the Liberal: Count of Champagne, 1127–1181. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Pp. x, 307; 7 black-and-white figures and 3 maps. $75. ISBN: 978-0-8122-4790-9. [REVIEW]David Crouch - 2017 - Speculum 92 (2):520-522.
Transcendentalism.Russell Goodman - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, The Clerical Proletariat and the Resurgence of Medieval English Poetry. (Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021. Pp. xx, 388; black-and-white figures. $89.95. ISBN: 978-0-8122-5263-7. [REVIEW]George Shuffelton - 2022 - Speculum 97 (4):1217-1218.
David S. Powers, Muḥammad Is Not the Father of Any of Your Men: The Making of the Last Prophet. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. Pp. xvi, 357; 9 black-and-white figures. $55. [REVIEW]Wilferd Madelung - 2010 - Speculum 85 (3):727-729.
Alex J. Novikoff, The Medieval Culture of Disputation: Pedagogy, Practice, and Performance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Pp. ix, 327; 13 black-and-white figures. $89.95. ISBN: 978-0-8122-4538-7. [REVIEW]Alain Boureau - 2014 - Speculum 89 (3):810-812.
Thomas A. Prendergast, Poetical Dust: Poets’ Corner and the Making of Britain. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015. Pp. xiv, 235; 19 black-and-white figures. $59.95. ISBN 978-0-8122-4750-3. [REVIEW]John M. Ganim - 2017 - Speculum 92 (3):884-885.
The Moral Individualism of Henry David Thoreau.David L. Norton - 1985 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 19:239-253.
The Moral Individualism of Henry David Thoreau.David L. Norton - 1985 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures 19:239-253.
Kim M. Phillips, Before Orientalism: Asian Peoples and Cultures in European Travel Writing, 1245–1510. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. Pp. ix, 314; 6 black-and-white figures. $79.95. ISBN: 978-0-8122-4548-6. [REVIEW]Jorge Flores - 2015 - Speculum 90 (2):576-577.
George W. Dameron, Florence and Its Church in the Age of Dante. (The Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Pp. x, 375; 11 black-and-white figures, 10 tables, and 2 maps. $65. [REVIEW]David Foote - 2006 - Speculum 81 (3):830-831.
Sarah McNamer, Affective Meditation and the Invention of Medieval Compassion. (The Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. Pp. viii, 309; 10 black-and-white figures. $59.95. ISBN: 978-0812242119. [REVIEW]Gail McMurray Gibson - 2012 - Speculum 87 (1):256-258.
INTERPRETATIONS OF XENOPHON'S MEMORABILIA - (D.) Sebell Xenophon's Socratic Education. Reason, Religion, and the Limits of Politics. Pp. x + 217. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021. Cased, £40, US$49.95. ISBN: 978-0-8122-5285-9. [REVIEW]David M. Johnson - 2022 - The Classical Review 72 (1):56-58.
Stefan Weinfurter, The Salian Century: Main Currents in an Age of Transition. Trans. Barbara M. Bowlus. Foreword by Charles M. Bowlus.(The Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. Pp. xiv, 233; black-and-white frontispiece, 41 black-and-white figures, and tables. $49.95. First published in 1992 under the title Herrschaft und Reich der Salier: Grundlinien einer Umbruchzeit by Jan Thorbecke, Sigmaringen. [REVIEW]Jonathan Rotondo-McCord - 2001 - Speculum 76 (3):811-813.
Theresa Coletti, Mary Magdalene and the Drama of Saints: Theater, Gender, and Religion in Late Medieval England. (The Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Pp. xiii, 342; black-and-white frontispiece and 15 black-and-white figures. $59.95. [REVIEW]Jane Tolmie - 2006 - Speculum 81 (3):828-829.
Eric J. Goldberg, In the Manner of the Franks: Hunting, Kingship, and Masculinity in Early Medieval Europe. (Middle Ages Series.) Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020. Pp. 338; black-and-white figures. $89.95. ISBN: 978-0-8122-5235-4. [REVIEW]Mathew Kuefler - 2022 - Speculum 97 (3):836-837.

Analytics

Added to PP
2024-04-25

Downloads
3 (#1,715,951)

6 months
3 (#984,770)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Moral Argument Is Not Enough.Nigel Pleasants - 2010 - Philosophical Topics 38 (1):159-180.
Lydia Maria Child on German philosophy and American slavery.Lydia Moland - 2021 - Tandf: British Journal for the History of Philosophy 29 (2):259-274.

View all 11 references / Add more references