Call for Book Chapter: “Colonial Reason in Enlightenment Philosophy: Engagements and Interventions”

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals for the forthcoming edited volume titled “Colonial Reason in Enlightenment Philosophy: Engagements and Interventions” edited by Anas Karzai.

The European Enlightenment era, also known as the Age of Reason, is regarded as the most progressive cultural and philosophical development in the evolution of western civilization. Enlightenment ideas of reason, logic, science, Christian morality and a market-driven rationality have contributed to Western ideals of human rights, individual freedom and human dignity. At the same time, their tenets serve as a theoretical and philosophical justification for colonialism, either overtly (e.g., Locke, Kant, Mill, Blumenbach, de Gobineau and Hegel) or indirectly.

In all cases, the result is the production of theorizing laden with colonial reasoning that is anthropocentric and subjugates both people and nature itself. In short, ‘colonial reason’ is broadly conceived here as both a philosophical worldview and practice justified as a ‘rational utilitarian purpose’ and a ‘Christian moral imperative’ to tame and civilize the ‘colonial subject’ – the ‘colonial subject’ having become merely an object of scientific knowledge.

This volume is intended to bring together an understanding of how these thinkers drew upon and promulgated colonial reasoning within their works. This collection will add to the literature a more holistic, systematic examination of primary philosophical categories, concepts and systems of thought developed by the European philosophers. These analyses can help to illuminate their contribution to the logic of domination that persists today even as Western societies may nominally appear to be seeking to dismantle it.

A preliminary outline of the chapters of the book would group the philosophers to be examined into the following categories:

Moral Philosophy: Immanuel Kant, David Hume, John Locke, Francois – Marie Arouet Voltaire

Classical Liberalism: Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, Charles Montesquieu

Philosophical Idealism: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, George Berkeley, Rene Descartes

Scientific Inquiry: Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, Arthur de Gobineau, Charles Darwin, Herbert Spencer

These philosophers have all contributed to shaping, both directly and indirectly, the ‘Euro-colonial imagination’ that has dominated Western societies’ social, political, juridical, economic and moral arrangements. Understanding the centrality of colonial domination to the thinker’s philosophical categories and concepts is a priori to understanding and addressing their persisting effects. For example, in his major work, ‘The Philosophy of History’, Hegel places China and Africa outside of his dialectical Weltgeist. He thereby situates Europe as ‘the end of history’…the final stage of the human story whereby the realization of his Absolute Consciousness is manifested in ethical life and subsequently finds its expression in civil society and the State.

Submission deadlines

We invite scholars and researchers from all academic fields to send an abstract and a short biography (approx 200 words) with author information (name, affiliation, email address) in PDF format to Anas Karzai at akarzai@laurentian.ca and Mia Valliere at mvalliere@laurentian.ca by 

November 15, 2024.

Your abstract should be focused on the analyses of the body of work of a thinker from the above list and include a tentative chapter title. Potential contributors will be notified of the decision to fully or tentatively accept or reject their abstract by November 30, 2024. Once an abstract has been accepted, contributors will be contacted to discuss their work plan in more detail. We expect to receive the final draft/chapter on April 30, 2025. The final draft/chapter will be subjected to a peer review process, and volume contributors will be expected to address the comments in the blind reviews.

The final draft should be at least 6,000 words in length.