Un-Lockeing the Beauty which Prejudice has Overlaid: On Alain Locke's Philosophical Anthropology, Value theory, and the Movement Towards Cosmopolitanism

Identifier

2647

Author

Corey Lorenzo Barnes

Date

2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Philosophy

Committee Chair

Bill E. Lawson

Committee Member

Luvell Anderson

Committee Member

Shaun Gallagher

Committee Member

Leonard Harris

Abstract

This work is an elucidation of Alain Locke’s philosophical anthropology and value theory as devices to combat racial superiority, which Locke took to be the greatest challenge to the possibility of establishing a cosmopolitan community. For Locke, the possibility of establishing a cosmopolitan community implies healthy social and political relations, which themselves imply respect. However, respect is denied to members of certain races because they are perceived to be the bearers of inherently inferior cultures, which are grounded in values. Locke needs a philosophical anthropology that combats the idea of distinct differences in races that are caused by either nature or God, and a value theory that displaces value-hierarchies. These two, taken together, provide the grounds for establishing a cosmopolitan community.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

Recommended Citation

Barnes, Corey Lorenzo, "Un-Lockeing the Beauty which Prejudice has Overlaid: On Alain Locke's Philosophical Anthropology, Value theory, and the Movement Towards Cosmopolitanism" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1392.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/1392